Risk Perception and Disaster Information Verification Among Chinese University Students Exposed to Simulated Social Media Posts: A Randomized Factorial Experiment

Disaster-related information increasingly circulates through social media during emergencies, but limited experimental evidence has examined how university students evaluate and verify such messages. This randomized 2 × 2 × 2 factorial experiment tested the effects of source cue, information veracity, and emotional tone in simulated disaster-related social media posts among Chinese university students. A total of 426 valid responses were analyzed. Misleading information and high-threat wording increased perceived risk, whereas official-source cues increased perceived credibility and sharing intention. Verification intention was more sensitive to misleading content and urgent wording, but task-based verification behavior showed a clearer association with source cue than with veracity or tone. The binary verification accuracy model provided weaker support than the continuous behavioral score. These findings suggest that risk perception, credibility judgment, intention, and verification choices may diverge in disaster misinformation contexts. Campus risk communication should therefore emphasize concrete verification routines rather than relying only on credibility cues or general reminders to check information before sharing.