Reposting negative information on microblogs: Do personality traits matter?

Forwarding negative information on microblogs, termed reposting negative information (RNI) in this study, refers to reposting negative, non-original information publicly on microblogs, causes large-scale bad news dissemination on microblogs, which in turn has detrimental consequences for organizations and the society. However, previous research concentrated on sharing of original content (such as knowledge sharing and word-of-mouth) or focused on general information forwarding on social media without distinguishing between positive and negative information. To address this issue, this study develops a model to investigate the predictors of RNI on microblogs (negative emotions and issue involvement in this study) and explores the contingency role of personality. A scenario-based online survey was conducted to test the proposed model and hypotheses. The empirical results confirmed (1) the direct and positive effects of negative emotions and issue involvement, (2) the negative moderation effect of extraversion on the relationship between negative emotions and RNI, and (3) the positive moderation effects of conscientiousness and agreeableness on the relationship between issue involvement and RNI. The study contributes to the literature by revealing the predictors of RNI on microblogs and by investigating the contingency role of personality.