Influence of Social Crowding on Rumor Refutation: The Mediating Effect of Impression Management and Social Connectedness

Internet rumor refutation represents a critical issue in the current governance of the Internet information environment. Different from the mainstream research that focuses on refutation subjects, methods, and information presentation formats, this study adopts a psychological perspective at the individual level to examine how a typical environmental factor—social crowding (the subjective psychological experience arising when spatial demand exceeds supply due to high population density per unit area) affects individuals’ willingness to refute rumors, as well as the mediating mechanisms and boundary conditions of this effect. The findings provide implications for motivating individual participation in Internet rumor refutation. Considering rumor refutation as a prosocial behavior, this study integrates the moral judgment framework and focuses on the positive side of greater self-other overlap induced by social crowding. Through one questionnaire survey and two experimental studies, most of the hypotheses are supported. The results indicate that social crowding positively influences willingness to refute rumors, with impression management and social connectedness serving as parallel mediators in this relationship. Additionally, interdependent self-construal positively moderates the relationship between social crowding and social connectedness, whereas the moderating role of independent self-construal was not supported. This study expands online rumor-refutation research from the perspective of environmental antecedents, proposes an altruistic-egoistic dual-pathway model, and provides practical implications for governments and social media platforms in rumor governance.