Self-Disclosure and the Affordances of SNSs: Testing the Privacy Calculus Within an Experimental Framework

• In Event: Communication and Technology Top Papers

Abstract

People are regularly confronted with the question of whether they should disclose personal information on social network sites (SNSs). We investigated the trade-off between expected benefits and perceived concerns, also known as the privacy calculus, and further asked how social affordances influence both self-disclosure and the privacy calculus. In an online experiment, we asked 160 participants to register on a mock-up SNS. Results showed that expected social support and situational privacy concerns predicted self-disclosure, implying that the privacy calculus can also be replicated in a behavioral setting. Social affordances (i.e., the similarity of participants to other users and the quantity of information disclosed by others users) increased self-disclosure; similarity affected the privacy calculus by reducing situational privacy concerns.

Authors

• Tobias Dienlin, U of Hohenheim

• Sabine Trepte, U of Hohenheim

• Michael Scharkow, Zeppelin U