(In)escapable Affect? Exploring Factors Influencing Privacy-Related Behavioral Intentions

Abstract

The study was run to investigate exploratory capabilities of factors such as individual characteristics, privacy concerns and information disclosure in the context of privacy behaviors. The research examined whether affective states arising from immediate emotions alter such capabilities. The results of an online study with 474 international participants demonstrate that immediate emotions might influence information sharing. The effect of privacy concerns, personality and information disclosure on the willingness to share is stronger when participants are in a neutral affective state. However, when the positive or negative feelings take over, the influence of these factors on willingness to share decreases. In this article, we postulate the necessity to include immediate emotions into research on privacy-related decision-making and discuss the applicability of our results in the context of privacy UIs.