Self-Disclosure and Privacy Online from a Psychological Perspective
Prof. Dr. Sabine Trepte
Paper presented at the Achatech Symposium
Internet Privacy – A culture of Privacy and Trust on the Internet
March 26th 2012
Berlin
Table of Content
A. Privacy and Self-Disclosure from a Psychological Perspective
B. Does Social Network Site Use Sozialize ist Users Towards more SelfDisclosure?
C. Do Perceived Privacy Risks and Negative Experiences Influence the Users‘
Privacy Management on Social Network Sites?
D. Discussion
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A.
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Privacy and Self-Disclosure from a Psychological Perspective
Self-Disclosure and Privacy – explicated
Psychological Definitions
Self-Disclosure:
„any information about himself which Person A communicates verbally to a Person B“ (Cozby,
1973, S. 73).
Norm of reciprocity: Tit for tat (Berg & Derlega, 1987)
Positive effects on Well-Being, psychological health and social capital (Forgas, 2011; Green,
Derlega & Matthews, 2006; Ignatius & Kokkonen, 2007)
Self-disclosure has been shown to be a common practice among social networks site users (boyd
& Hargittai, 2010; Ledbetter, 2011; Nguyen, Bin, & Campbell, in press)
Privacy:
dialectic and optimizing process
“regulatory process by which a person (or group) makes himself more or less accessible and
open to others.” (Altman, 1977, p. 3)
Privacy infringements have been shown to negatively influences psychological health, well-being
and life-satisfaction (Vinsel et al., 1980)
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Dimensions of Privacy
Psychological Definitions
Psychological
Privacy
Social Privacy
Privacy
Informational
Privacy
Burgoon (1982): Dimensions of privacy
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Physical Privacy
B.
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Does Social Network Site Use Sozialize ist Users Towards more SelfDisclosure?
Socialization Hypothesis
Does social network size use socialize its users towards more
openness?
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Selection Hypothesis
Do particular people, who are fond of disclosing private
information online, actively select social network sites to live out
their psychological tendency to self-disclose?
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Moderation Hypothesis
Do social rewards reinforce social network site use and self-disclosure online?
How do social rewards interact with SNS use and self-disclosure online?
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A Reciprocal Model of Self-Disclosure and SNS-Use
Model
Social Rewards
High vs. low
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Frequency
Network Use
Time 1
Frequency
Network Use
Time 2
Online selfdisclosure
Time 1
Online selfdisclosure
Time 2
Longitudinal Study on the Uses and Effects of the Social Web
Method
18 month
T0
August 2009
N = 1507
Initial
screeningsurvey on
media use and
demographic
data
T1
October 2009
N = 692
T2
April 2010
N = 575
T3
October 2010
N = 488
Frequency of social network site use
Personal information provided on online profile
Self-Disclosure Index (Miller et al. 1983)
Perceived risk of social network site use
Negative experiences with social network site use
Conflicts due to self-disclosure on social network sites
This project was funded by the German Research Foundation
(Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft, DFG): TR 498/9-1
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6 month
6 month
6 month
T4
May 2011
N = 457
C.
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Do Perceived Privacy Risks and Negative Experiences Influence the Users‘
Privacy Management on Social Network Sites?
In spite of negative experiences, users increasingly selfdisclose online and perceive less risks
Negative experiences, perceived risks and amount of profile information
Negative
Experiences
Negative
Experiences
Amount of Profile
Information
Amount of Profile
Information
Risks
Perceived
Risks
Amount of
profile Information
visible for all
network
members
T1
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Amount of
profile Information
visible for all
network
members
T3-T1
All differences indicated by different sizes of bubbles are significantly different (T-Test for dependent samples of at least p < .05)
Privacy Paradox – Not so Paradox After All…
Psychological Definitions
Psychological
Privacy
Social Privacy
Privacy
Informational
Privacy
Burgoon (1982): Dimensions of privacy
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Physical Privacy
D.
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Discussion
Longitudinal results reveal reciprocity of Social Network Site Use
and Self-Disclosure
Discussion and conclusion
Selective Exposure Hypothesis and Socialization Hypothesis confirmed
Selective Exposure: Online self-disclosure influences the frequency of SNS use
Socialization: SNS use increases online self-disclosure
Social Rewards as a Currency and the „Driver“ of Social Web Use
Social rewards amplify social network site use
Social rewards strengthen reciprocity of social network site use and online self-disclosure
Privacy Paradox – Not So Paradox
Benefits of self-disclosure are perceived as higher than risks
Presumably users evaluate psychological and informational privacy in different hemispheres
and on different accounts
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Edited Book with Interdisciplinary Perspectives on Online Privacy
Many Contributors are Members of the
„Young Scholars Network of Privacy &
Web 2.0“
Stephen Margulis
Joe Walther
Nicole B. Ellison
Jessica Vitak
Charles Steinfield
Rebecca Gray
Cliff Lampe
Adam Joinson
Bernhard Debatin
Zizi Papacharissi
Paige L. Gibson
Jochen Peter
Patti Valkenburg
Mike Yao
Nicole Krämer
Nina Haferkamp
Monika Taddicken
Cornelia Jers
Jan Schmidt
Marc Ziegele
Oliver Quiring
Maren Hartmann
Wiebke Loosen
Wiebke Maaß
Mike Thelwall
The research network is funded by the German
Research Foundation (Deutsche
Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG): TR 498/11-1
Trepte, S. & Reinecke, L. (Eds) (2011): Privacy
Online: Perspectives on Privacy and Self-Disclosure
in the Social Web. Springer: Heidelberg.
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Thank you very much for you attention!
Prof. Dr. Sabine Trepte
University of Hamburg
Hamburg Media School
Finkenau 35
22081 Hamburg, Germany
+ 49 (0)40 413468-26
[email protected]
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