How Much Will You Share?: Exploring Attitudinal and Behavioral Nudges in Online Private Information Sharing

How do individuals decide how much private information to share publicly? We explore: (a) What are contemporary attitudes about sharing? (b) How much can an organization influence members' sharing indirectly through targeting attitudes, and/or directly through targeting behaviors? We draw on ambivalence, nudging, and privacy paradox theories to examine these important questions using samples of university students in the context of setting up public student profile pages viewable to other members of their institution. We find that positive, negative, and ambivalent attitudes coexist in the population (Study 1). We also find that individuals are cognizant of privacy-intrusiveness (Study 2), suggesting sharing is not mindless. Rather, individuals share more when concerns are relatively lower, versus when only concerns or both concerns and benefits are emphasized (positive, negative, and balanced attitudinal nudges; Studies 3 and 4). Further, we find that attitudinal and behavioral nudges separately influence sharing (Study 4). These findings contribute to our understanding of the effects of ambivalence and suggest ways organizations can influence-and members might mitigate-(un)wanted sharing compliance.