Perceived control in the negotiation of privacy: A social cognitive approach to self-disclosure

This thesis adopts a social cognitive approach to examine the factors that influence individuals' willingness to disclose personal information. The first part of the thesis is concerned with consumers' willingness to disclose in the particular context of e-commerce. The second part is a test of a theoretical model on the role of self-efficacy beliefs in the regulation of personal boundaries. Theoretical approaches and research findings on self-disclosure in interpersonal relationships and the applications of this literature to e-commerce are reviewed. In the first study of the thesis, consumers' views on privacy in e-commerce are analysed with long qualitative interviews. Data suggest that consumers' willingness to disclose is related to risk awareness of broader social context and to individual differences in perceived control over interactions with companies. Results also indicate that consumers' perception of risk has a potentially negative effect on trust in commercial organisations that operate over the Internet. This argument is experimentally tested with a study conducted over the Internet assessing the impact of awareness of data mining, reputation and rewards on willingness to disclose topics of different degrees of perceived sensitivity. A questionnaire is developed for use in the experiment with items of different perceived sensitivity. Experimental results reveal a mediating effect of awareness of risks. Awareness of risks decreases willingness to disclose by negatively affecting the perceived trustworthiness of well-reputed companies. In the second part of the thesis, two studies test the hypothesis of individual differences in perceived self-efficacy as an explanation of variation in self-disclosure. Results indicate that perceived social efficacy, interpersonal control and perceived self-disclosure efficacy contribute to openness and, conversely, to privacy concerns. On the basis of research that showed the role of persuasion from significant others as an important source of self-efficacy beliefs, the hypothesis that expert feedback on previous performance might affect subsequent disclosure is explored with two experiments. The findings suggest that motivation to disclose can be enhanced by means of expert feedback. The final chapter discusses the possible role of self-efficacy beliefs in a consumer context. Hypotheses about the phenomenon of consumers' awareness of risks and the need for control as an expression of the emerging salience of self-efficacy beliefs in boundary regulation are advanced and a future research agenda is outlined