Antecedents of privacy concern: the examination of “self” and “others” on Facebook

ABSTRACT As privacy concern is proven to be a pivotal thought that determines online self-disclosure, the current study examined the simultaneous influence of the antecedents of privacy concern. Specifically, this study focused on the nature of information (i.e., personal involvement) and the diversity of recipients (i.e., audience representation) in influencing individuals’ cognitive processes pertinent to privacy concerns on Facebook. We conducted an experiment and a total of 241 young adults participated in the study. The results suggested that information that was highly involved with oneself would trigger extended thought elaboration related to privacy. However, surprisingly, influence from audience representation in the network was revealed to be minimal. The study underscores the self-serving purpose of privacy concern online, such that users would primarily focus on considerations surrounding themselves. The results of the current study highlight the importance of self-concerns when users are making sense of their decisions pertinent to self-disclosure on SNSs. Future directions are discussed.