Privacy concerns and social desirability bias

Abstract

Privacy concerns may influence many choices consumers make. However, their expressed concerns are sometimes inconsistent with their information-sharing and privacy-protecting behaviors. Many theories have been proposed to explain the paradoxical gap between privacy attitudes and behaviors. Part of the privacy paradox may be explained with two measures that have received limited consideration: impulsiveness and social desirability bias (SDB). Surveys of US adults in 2015 and 2022 included questions to measure several types of privacy concerns along with impulsive tendencies and SDB (N = 2729). Age, education, gender, race, income, and impulsive tendencies were linked with some privacy concerns. If people with above-average concerns also disclose personal information on impulse, it might explain part of the paradox. Large coefficients on the SDB measure suggest that individuals who adjust their responses to be consistent with social norms may also overstate specific privacy concerns. For these individuals, their high expressed concerns may be inconsistent with their privacy behaviors. When researchers try to explain consumer attitudes or actions that involve privacy, multiple privacy concern dimensions should be considered and demographics, impulsive tendencies, and SDB should be included in the models.