Museum Visitor Comfort When Sharing Personal Information for Evaluation

ABSTRACT The article answers the research question: under what conditions and with what methods would museum visitors feel comfortable (and not comfortable) sharing sensitive information for the purposes of museum research or evaluation? We ground our study in literature about sharing personal information in person, online, and in the context of digital marketing and social media. In our interviews of n = 114 science center visitors, we found that while majorities would share sensitive information in person with an evaluator, age and gender were important factors in predicting whether or not someone feels comfortable doing so in public settings or with tablet questionnaires. We then discuss the ethical importance of giving visitors choice in whether to and how to share their information for the purposes of evaluation.