Of promoting networking and protecting privacy: Effects of defaults and regulatory focus on social media users’ preference settings

• Main Authors: CHO, Hichang, ROH, Sungjong, PARK, Byungho
• Format: text
• Language: English
• Published: Institutional Knowledge at Singapore Management University 2019
• Subjects: Privacy Default effect Regulatory focus Social media; Digital Communications and Networking; Social Media
• Online Access: https://ink.library.smu.edu.sg/lkcsb_research/6438; https://ink.library.smu.edu.sg/context/lkcsb_research/article/7437/viewcontent/Of_promoting_networking_and_protecting_privacy.pdf
• Institution: Singapore Management University

Privacyresearch has debated whether privacy decision-making is determined by users'stable preferences (i.e., individual traits), privacy calculus (i.e.,cost-benefit analysis), or “responses on the spot” that vary across contexts.This study focuses on two factors—default setting as a contextual factor andregulatory focus as an individual difference factor—and examines the degree towhich these factors affect social media users' decisionmaking when usingprivacy preference settings in a fictitious social networking site. Theresults, based on two experimental studies (study 1, n = 414; study 2, n =213), show that default settings significantly affect users' privacypreferences, such that users choose the defaults or alternatives proximal tothem. Study 2 shows that regulatory focus also affects privacy decisions, suchthat users with a strong promotion focus select options favoring a highersocial networking utility, perceiving lesser cognitive efforts and moreconfidence in decisions. Finally, we find a significant interaction effectbetween default setting and regulatory focus on perceived effort andconfidence, suggesting that the default effect is contingent on users’ goalorientations (operationalized as regulatory focus). We discuss the implicationsfor research and practice.