Poor medication adherence, particularly for chronic diseases, is a critical public health issue, often complicated by patient exposure to conflicting information. This study investigates the psychological mechanisms by which conflicting medication information influences adherence, with a comparative analysis between Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) and Western medicine (WM). Utilizing a multi-method approach including content analysis of online information, questionnaire surveys, and scenario-based experiments, this research explored the impact of conflicting information on adherence via perceived medication risk, and the moderating roles of medication type (TCM vs. WM) and disease type (acute vs. chronic). Key findings indicate that prevalent online conflicting information increases perceived medication risk, subsequently reducing adherence. However, physician-recommended TCM can attenuate this negative impact, leading to higher adherence compared to WM, especially in chronic disease contexts. Online information also showed less coverage for TCM. These results underscore that lay theories regarding the relative safety of Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) can serve a protective role in navigating information conflict, offering key insights for health communication strategies.