Privacy Paradox Revised: Pre-Existing Attitudes, Psychological Ownership, and Actual Disclosure

Abstract

Prior research has pointed to discrepancies between users' privacy concerns and disclosure behaviors, denoted as the privacy paradox, and repeatedly highlighted the importance to find explanations for this dichotomy. In this regard, three approaches have been proposed by prior literature: (1) use of actual disclosure behavior rather than behavioral intentions, (2) systematic distinction between pre-existing attitudes and situation-specific privacy considerations, and (3) limited and irrational cognitive processes during decision-making. The current research proposes an experiment capable to test these three assumptions simultaneously. More precisely, the authors aim to explore the contextual nature of privacy-related decisions by systematically manipulating (1) individuals’ psychological ownership with regard to own private information, and (2) individuals’ affective states, while measuring (3) pre-existing attitudes as well as situation-specific risk and benefit perceptions, and (4) intentions as well as actual disclosure. Thus, the proposed study strives to uniquely add to the understanding of the privacy paradox.