Examining the Privacy Calculus under Happy and Sad Mood States Using Positive and Negative Scenario-based Connotations

This research will examine some boundaries of a prominent theory in the privacy literature (i.e., the privacy calculus). This theory suggests that users weigh perceived privacy risks and benefits as they make disclosure decisions, such sharing personal information online in the context of social media. We will focus on affect (i.e., positive and negative mood states) and its role in influencing individuals privacy calculus as they make privacy decisions in the context of social media. We will conduct a series of experiments to present empirical evidence that explains how mood state affects individuals privacy decisions. We predict that a happy mood state will causally affect individuals to share more personal information, even if they had concerns for online privacy. In contrast, a sad mood state will causally lead individuals to share less personal information, even if sharing such personal information is an innocuous behavior. We propose three randomized experiments to examine our research question: How do mood states moderate individuals privacy calculus when making disclosure decisions? In experiment 1, we use a cognitive task (i.e., a fill in the blank task) to manipulate individuals mood (happy or sad) and measure their disclosure intention along with the constructs of the privacy calculus (i.e., perceived privacy risks and benefits). Experiment 1 will be a replication of our previous work (Alashoor et al. 2018). In experiment 2, we follow the same procedure but we apply an alternative cognitive task to manipulate mood. The rationale for conducting experiment 2 is to provide further evidence for the effect of mood through another manipulation task while ruling out some alternative explanations. In experiment 3, we use the two mood tasks in in one experimental design (mood task: happy with a positive connotation vs. sad with a positive connotation vs. happy with a negative connotation vs. sad with a negative connotation) and we will measure individuals disclosure behaviors rather than disclosure intentions. Thus, the series of experiments will provide strong empirical evidence for the role of mood in influencing privacy decisions. Subjects will be recruited through online research panels.