Eun Go

Unlocking the privacy paradox: do cognitive heuristics hold the key?

Even though users have become increasingly concerned about their privacy online, they continue to disclose deeply personal information in a number of online venues, including e-commerce portals and social networking sites. Scholars have tried to explain this inconsistency between attitudes and behavior by suggesting that online users consciously weigh the trade-off between the costs and benefits of online information disclosure. We argue that online user behaviors are not always rational, but may occur due to expedient decision-making in the heat of the moment. Such decisions are based on cognitive heuristics (i.e., rules of thumb) rather than on a careful analysis of each transaction. Based on this premise, we seek to identify the specific triggers for disclosure of private information online. In the experiment reported here, we explore the operation of two specific heuristics-benefit and fuzzy boundary-in influencing privacy-related attitudes and behaviors. Theoretical and design implications are discussed.

Communicating Art, Virtually! Psychological Effects of Technological Affordances in a Virtual Museum

Museums lean heavily on recent developments in communication technologies to create an authentic experience for online visitors of its galleries. This study examines whether three specific affordances of communication technology—customization, interactivity, and navigability—can provide the personal, social, and physical contexts, respectively, that are necessary for ensuring an enjoyable museum experience. A 2 (presence vs. absence of customizable gallery) × 2 (presence vs. absence of live-chat with others) × 2 (presence vs. absence of 3D navigational tool) between-subjects factorial experiment (N = 126) found that although each affordance is associated with distinct psychological benefits (customization with sense of agency and control, interactivity with reciprocity, and navigability with perceived reality), combining them on the same interface tends to undermine these benefits. In addition, power usage moderates the effectiveness of each affordance on the interface. Theoretical and practical implications are discussed.

Exploring the Role of Agenda-Building Efforts in Media Coverage and Policymaking Activity of Healthcare Reform

This investigation explores the relationships among information subsidies, news media coverage, and policymaking activities regarding healthcare reform during the first year of the Obama presidential administration. Specifically, a comparison of information subsidies (from the president, federal government offices, Congress, and healthcare-related stakeholder groups), news media content, and policymaking activity was completed from March 2009 to December 2009. Significant correlations were found for the salience of issues and stakeholder groups among information subsidies, news media coverage, and policymaking activity. Robust linkages were also found concerning issue attribute salience.

What and How to Communicate CSR? The Role of CSR fit, Modality Interactivity, and Message Interactivity on Social Networking Sites

ABSTRACT The current study explored how organizations can build credibility of their CSR communication in social media. In particular the study investigated the role of CSR fit, modality interactivity and message interactivity through a 2 × 2 × 3 experimental design (N = 299). The results suggest that promoting CSR activities with a good fit for the organization leads to greater credibility. Message interactivity also leads to greater credibility perception by way of imbuing a sense of social presence and openness to communication; however, modality interactivity did not significantly influence credibility. Additional analysis suggests an interaction between CSR fit and message interactivity that makes fit critical in low-interactivity settings. Implications for public relations research and practice are discussed.

Health information seeking on the Internet: The role of involvement in searching for and assessing online health information

ABSTRACT This study focuses on how young people with differing levels of involvement seek and evaluate information about the human papillomavirus online. The results, which are drawn from an experiment and a self-administered survey, suggest that compared to people with a low level of involvement, people with a high level of involvement engage in more information search activity. The results also indicate that those with a high level of involvement in a given subject place a higher value on a website’s message features than on its structural features. Implications, limitations, and suggestions for future research are discussed.