The social psychology of privacy

Exploring the antecedents of trust in electronic word-of-mouth platform: The perspective on gratification and positive emotion

Frequent human-media interaction via the electronic word-of-mouth (e-wom) platform, trust is acknowledged as an ongoing challenge. This study aimed to understand users' trust in the e-wom platform based on uses and gratifications theory and stimulus-organism-response (S-O-R) paradigm. Utilitarian gratification (perceived information quality and perceived privacy protection) was regarded as stimulus, social gratification (sense of social belonging and sense of self-esteem) and positive emotion as organism, and platform trust as response. Data was acquired from 268 users in China using a questionnaire survey, and the PLS-SEM was used to further analyze the results. The results indicated that there is a hierarchy relationship between types of gratifications. That is, utilitarian gratification is a premise of social gratification. Moreover, sense of self-esteem and positive emotion have a mediating effect between perceived information quality and platform trust. Sense of social belonging and positive emotion have a mediating effect between perceived privacy protection and platform trust. This study not only broadened trust between human and media, but also purposed a hierarchy relationship of different types of gratifications in e-wom platform.

Correlates of social media fatigue and academic performance decrement

Purpose

The current study aims to investigate if different measures related to online psychosocial well-being and online behavior correlate with social media fatigue.

Design/methodology/approach

To understand the antecedents and consequences of social media fatigue, the stressor-strain-outcome (SSO) framework is applied. The study consists of two cross-sectional surveys that were organized with young-adult students. Study A was conducted with 1,398 WhatsApp users (aged 19 to 27 years), while Study B was organized with 472 WhatsApp users (aged 18 to 23 years).

Findings

Intensity of social media use was the strongest predictor of social media fatigue. Online social comparison and self-disclosure were also significant predictors of social media fatigue. The findings also suggest that social media fatigue further contributes to a decrease in academic performance.

Originality/value

This study builds upon the limited yet growing body of literature on a theme highly relevant for scholars, practitioners as well as social media users. The current study focuses on examining different causes of social media fatigue induced through the use of a highly popular mobile instant messaging app, WhatsApp. The SSO framework is applied to explore and establish empirical links between stressors and social media fatigue.

Small Houses, Big Community: Tiny Housers’ Desire for More Cohesive and Collaborative Communities

Past research on the tiny house movement has primarily focused on understanding the individual motivations behind adopting the tiny house lifestyle. While some studies have suggested that tiny housers do entertain an interest in community, no systematic research exists that examines the actual complexities of this phenomenon. To make first inroads into this body of literature, twenty-four community-oriented tiny housers were interviewed about their ideal community. Interview questions ranged from definitions of community to specific ideas of the nature of community characteristics. Interviews were recorded, transcribed, and then coded in NVivo 12.0. Four main themes and eleven subthemes emerged from the qualitative content analysis. Select themes were then subjected to a subsequent quantification analysis in order to refine and deepen the theoretical understanding. The findings of this exploratory study suggest that a majority of tiny housers desire to be part of more cohesive and collaborative communities. While stressing the importance of community, tiny housers also expressed concerns over privacy. To explain the findings, the paper offers a set of arguments situated in the broader socio-cultural texture of our time.

Privacy matters… or does It? Algorithms, rationalization, and the erosion of concern for privacy

Products and services built around artificially intelligent algorithms offer a host of benefits to users but they require vast amounts of personal data in return. As a result, privacy is perhaps more vulnerable today than ever before. We posit that this vulnerability is not only technical, but psychological. Whereas people have historically cared about and fought for the right to privacy, the diffusion and conveniences of algorithms could be systematically eroding people's capacity and psychological motivation to take meaningful action. Specifically, we examine four factors that increase the tendency to rationalize privacy-reducing algorithms: 1) awareness of the benefits and conveniences of algorithms, 2) a low perceived probability of experiencing harm, 3) exposure to negative consequences only after usage has already begun, and 4) certainty that losing privacy is inevitable. We suggest that future research should consider these and related factors in order to better understand the changing psychology of privacy.

Grief Work and Dirty Work: The Aftermath of an Aircrash

Normally, death activities are carried out by organizations of death experts who create the impression of cooperation and personal interest. But when an airplane crashes and many people die, the “normal” problems are multiplied not just because of the number of deaths, but also because a complex system of phenomena develops to cope with the many deaths. This paper describes the activities of and the organizations responsible for the handling of the dead after a major airplane crash in which thirty-two people were killed. The author participated as a “death expert” and was able to gather data about death-related crash activities and events. A temporary service system emerged in which the service relationship was brief, intimate, and bureaucratic. The social organization and power structure confirm that organizational status is to some extent based on the character of organizational tasks. The bereaved, however, saw this interrelated set of specific service occupations as if it were one server that seemed uncontrollable and unconcerned about their personal losses.

Orientations toward Privacy in Hong Kong

This research used factor analysis to determine orientations toward privacy among the urban adult Chinese in Hong Kong. A questionnaire of 60 items dealing with different possible types of privacy was administered to a random sample of 355 people. Five major factors based on 21 of these 60 items emerged from the factor analysis. The context of these factors centered on a desire for solitude, a concern for information collecting by the government, a need to escape the presence of friends and relatives, the control of domestic living space, and regulation of the flow of personal information to outsiders. The nature of the relationship between preferences for these types of privacy and indicators of density, age of respondents, length of residence in Hong Kong, and experience of living in rural environment was examined by multiple regression analysis. Among other things, the results of this effort provided some support for the notion that high density acts to reduce the preference for privacy.

Privacy: a review of the literature

The concept of privacy is used in many disciplines and is recognised as one of the important concepts also in nursing. In this review, a description about the perspectives and dimensions of the concept will be made and empirical studies in the area will be analysed. Perspectives include units experiencing privacy, desired-achieved state, and reactiveness. Dimensions are divided into physical, psychological, social and informational. In the empirical studies, the concept of the privacy has mainly been studied in hospital organisations using the physical dimension. The concept needs further clarification in future.

Family communication patterns in coping with early breast cancer

Diagnosis of a life-threatening disease is a major family stressor. How family members communicate with each other about the situation and their fears has received little study. The communication patterns of 41 couples where the woman was newly diagnosed with Stage 1 or 2 breast cancer were investigated. Family interviews were done at five points, from the time of diagnosis to 1 year later. Qualitative grounded theory methods were triangulated with responses to the Couple Communication Scale and State Trait Anxiety Inventory. Three major types of couple discussion patterns about fears, doubts, and emotional issues were seen, based on whether they shared similar or different views about the importance of talking. Some couples talked openly or reasonably openly. Others did not talk to each other, although a few of these talked to other people. Another group, who held divergent views, demonstrated more problems in their communication. Selective open disclosure was generally perceived as the most satisfactory of the patterns. Quantitative findings generally supported the talking themes that emerged.

DIMENSIONS OF PRIVACY PREFERENCES

The development of the Privacy Preference Scale, a 56 item five-choice summative scale, is described. Six subscales were constructed from a principal axis factor analysis with unities in the diagonal of an 86 item pool; these focused on preferences for non-involvement with neighbors, seclusion of the home, solitude, privacy with intimates, anonymity, and reserve. The ability of the subscales to differentiate between age and sex groups, and their relationship to personality measures (the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator) and to self-reported privacy oriented behavior are presented.