This study aims to explore the key influencing factors and their impact pathways of network users' rumor diffusion behavior, thereby providing theoretical reference and practical experience for the government and the public to respond to rumor diffusion and effective rumor governance. Based on systematic literature screening, a meta-analysis was conducted on 34 Chinese and English literatures, obtaining a total of 91 effect sizes and 38,296 samples. Subsequently, significant influencing factor variables were obtained through effect combination hypothesis testing, while moderating effects were explored. Combined with 50 network rumor cases, fuzzy-set qualitative comparative analysis was carried out to explore the influence paths of network users' rumor diffusion behavior. The results show that the identity of the disseminator, emotional trust, risk perception, social relationship, rumor emotionality, information quality, and environmental ambiguity have a critical impact on network users' rumor diffusion behavior. Research time, survey background, rumor environment, and rumor type also have an important influence on rumor diffusion behavior. The configuration effects can be summarized into three influence paths: "risk-defense" driven, "deficit-relationship" driven, and "relationship-cognition" driven.
