Privacy Paradox and Framing Effects

This study investigates the impact of framing effects on the willingness of online consumers to disclose personal information. Earlier research accentuated that online buyers easily reveal their private data in exchange for relatively small rewards as a newsletter or a personalized greeting. This imprudent behavior is in great contrast with the reported high levels of privacy concerns among consumers. The discrepancy between actual or intended privacy related behavior and stated privacy concern is coined as the privacy paradox. The main objective of this study is to examine if by either positively or negatively highlighting the consequences of revealing the private information, the behavior of consumers can be influenced. Nevertheless, the results of the analyses demonstrated that it is problematic to impact the privacy related behavior of consumers. As a consequence of this conclusion, the validity of the privacy paradox is questioned. Is the postulated ambiguity between privacy concerns and intended behavior well founded? The soundness of the main premise of the privacy paradox is examined in the second part of the study and after an extensive analysis refuted. Hence, the main conclusion of this research is that the reported levels of privacy concerns are decisive for intended privacy related behavior. As a consequence, privacy related decision-making is compatible and therefore hard to influence by non-normative factors such as framing effects. This conclusion is progressive and begs for reassessment of the fundamental principle in the research on information privacy: the privacy paradox.