Too Crowded to Disclose! Exploring the Relationship Between Online Crowdedness and Self-Disclosure

Abstract

Nowadays, people communicate with many others online. Of the online sites, product review pages have become an important communication medium on which consumers share information about a product. Drawing upon this trend, we examined the factors that affect reviewers’ self-disclosure behavior. Prior studies have found that privacy behaviors such as self-disclosure are affected by diverse contextual factors. In this study, we propose that online crowdedness is an important contextual factor for self-disclosure behavior. Using review data from the largest online apparel rental site in the U.S., we empirically explored the relationship between online crowdedness and self-disclosure behavior. The result shows that online crowdedness can discourage self-disclosure behavior.