Investigating Factors of Users’ Attitudes from the Dual-Path Perspective

The rise and rapid development of social media have fundamentally transformed the mode of information dissemination, but they have also aroused the discussion about information credibility. In this context, the information needs of users are increasingly becoming the focus of social media platforms. In view of this, this study constructs a theoretical framework based on the elaboration likelihood model to explore the relationships among information quality, source credibility, platform reputation, and users’ attitudes. The results show that information quality and source credibility have a significant positive effect on users’ attitudes, while the effect of platform reputation on users’ attitudes is not significant. Based on the empirical findings, this study suggests that social media platforms should safeguard the clarity, accuracy, and timeliness of information, and encourage users to generate and share high-quality content to enhance users’ positive attitudes toward the platforms, which in turn promotes users’ positive behavior on social media.