%A Shen Chao,Zhu Qinghua,Shen Hongzhou %T Web Users’ Group Attitudes to Online Rumors %0 Journal Article %D 2016 %J Data Analysis and Knowledge Discovery %R 10.11925/infotech.1003-3513.2016.06.05 %P 37-45 %V 32 %N 6 %U {https://manu44.magtech.com.cn/Jwk_infotech_wk3/CN/abstract/article_4235.shtml} %8 2016-06-25 %X

[Objective] This study examines the motivation and patterns of the Web users’ (i.e., college students) group attitudes to various online rumors. [Methods] First, we used survey to collect the attitude and behavior data of the participants in the process of rumor spreading. Second, we analyzed the data with classification algorithm. [Results] We found that Web users tried to verify the rumors, the content of the rumors decides the disseminating channels, and the interaction among Web users changed dynamically. The main factors affecting the Web users’ attitudes include the initial awareness, group behavior, as well as information acquisition and communication channels. However, there is no significant correlation between the changing of Web users’ attitudes and the rumors’ contents. [Limitations] Only investigated college students’ reaction to rumors, which might affect the comprehensiveness of the conclusions. [Conclusions] Analyzing online rumors with empirical research and data mining technology will offer more practical insights to establish online rumor models.