Flavius Kehr

Blissfully ignorant: the effects of general privacy concerns, general institutional trust, and affect in the privacy calculus

Existing research on information privacy has mostly relied on the privacy calculus model, which views privacy‐related decision‐making as a rational process where individuals weigh the anticipated risks of disclosing personal data against the potential benefits. In this research, we develop an extension to the privacy calculus model, arguing that the situation‐specific assessment of risks and benefits is bounded by (1) pre‐existing attitudes or dispositions, such as general privacy concerns or general institutional trust, and (2) limited cognitive resources and heuristic thinking. An experimental study, employing two samples from the USA and Switzerland, examined consumer responses to a new smartphone application that collects driving behavior data and provided converging support for these predictions. Specifically, the results revealed that a situation‐specific assessment of risks and benefits fully mediates the effect of dispositional factors on information disclosure. In addition, the results showed that privacy assessment is influenced by momentary affective states, indicating that consumers underestimate the risks of information disclosure when confronted with a user interface that elicits positive affect.

Rethinking Privacy Decisions: Pre-Existing Attitudes, Pre-Existing Emotional States, and a Situational Privacy Calculus

As a potential explanation to measured inconsistencies between stated privacy concerns and actual disclosing behavior, denoted as the „privacy paradox“, scholars have proposed a systematic distinction between situational privacy considerations and pre-existing, superordinate factors that shape the decisive situation without being directly connected to the situation itself. Deploying an experimental approach, we explored the dynamics of two types of such pre-existing factors, namely (1) pre-existing attitudes (such as general privacy concerns and general institutional trust) and (2) pre-existing emotional states (such as an individual’s current mood) in shaping situation-specific risk and benefit considerations (i.e., a situational privacy calculus). Compared to a negative emotional state, individuals in a positive emotional state were found to perceive lowered situation-specific privacy risks, even if the sources of this state were unrelated to the decisive situation at hand. Moreover, results indicated that pre-existing attitudes may be partially or even fully overridden by situational risk and benefit considerations. Adopting a differentiated view on privacy decision-making, these findings imply that the privacy paradox could be driven by a gap between pre-existing cognitive and affective factors on the one side, and situation-specific considerations and decisions on the other. Implications for researchers and practitioners are discussed.

QUANTITATIVE LONGITUDINAL RESEARCH: A REVIEW OF IS LITERATURE, AND A SET OF METHODOLOGICAL GUIDELINES

Data captured at different points in time provides the basis for longitudinal research. It is unquestioned that several IS phenomena deal with change over time such as post-adoption behavior with respect to IT artifacts. However, cross-sectional research designs are predominantly applied in the IS field up till now. This paper is therefore written not only to motivate the IS community to apply longitudinal research to time-variant IS phenomena but also to discuss common pitfalls. For this purpose, we outline various longitudinal studies and provide four guidelines that should be considered during their planning. In particular, common methodological issues like space and amount of repeated observations or attrition are discussed. Finally, an overview of common longitudinal research questions and corresponding methods of longitudinal analyses is provided.

Effects of Charitable Versus Monetary Incentives on the Acceptance of and Adherence to a Pedometer-Based Health Intervention: Study Protocol and Baseline Characteristics of a Cluster-Randomized Controlled Trial

Background Research has so far benefited from the use of pedometers in physical activity interventions. However, when public health institutions (eg, insurance companies) implement pedometer-based interventions in practice, people may refrain from participating due to privacy concerns. This might greatly limit the applicability of such interventions. Financial incentives have been successfully used to influence both health behavior and privacy concerns, and may thus have a beneficial effect on the acceptance of pedometer-based interventions. Objective This paper presents the design and baseline characteristics of a cluster-randomized controlled trial that seeks to examine the effect of financial incentives on the acceptance of and adherence to a pedometer-based physical activity intervention offered by a health insurance company. Methods More than 18,000 customers of a large Swiss health insurance company were allocated to a financial incentive, a charitable incentive, or a control group and invited to participate in a health prevention program. Participants used a pedometer to track their daily physical activity over the course of 6 months. A Web-based questionnaire was administered at the beginning and at the end of the intervention and additional data was provided by the insurance company. The primary outcome of the study will be the participation rate, secondary outcomes will be adherence to the prevention program, physical activity, and health status of the participants among others. Results Baseline characteristics indicate that residence of participants, baseline physical activity, and subjective health should be used as covariates in the statistical analysis of the secondary outcomes of the study. Conclusions This is the first study in western cultures testing the effectiveness of financial incentives with regard to a pedometer-based health intervention offered by a large health insurer to their customers. Given that the incentives prove to be effective, this study provides the basis for powerful health prevention programs of public health institutions that are easy to implement and can reach large numbers of people in need.

Prädiktoren sicherheitsrelevanten Verhaltens bei jugendlichen Computernutzern

ZusammenfassungVor dem Hintergrund der stetig zunehmenden Fallzahlen von kriminellen Handlungen im Internet wird der Selbstschutz von Usern immer wichtiger. Gerade Jugendliche gelten als gefährdet, da sie sich häufig besonders sorglos im Netz bewegen. Der Beitrag präsentiert die Ergebnisse einer Befragung, die den Einfluss von fünf unterschiedlichen Faktoren auf das sicherheitsrelevante Verhalten von Jugendlichen untersucht hat. Besonderes Augenmerk wird dabei auf die Rolle von generalisiertem Vertrauen im Verhältnis zu anderen Faktoren gelegt.