Abstract
Pokémon Go is one of the most successful mobile games of all time. Millions played and still play this mobile augmented reality (AR) application, although severe privacy issues are pervasive in the app due to its use of several sensors such as location data and camera. In general, individuals regularly use online services and mobile apps although they might know that the use is associated with high privacy risks. This seemingly contradictory behavior of users is analyzed from a variety of different perspectives in the information systems domain. One of these perspectives evaluates privacy-related decision making processes based on concepts from behavioral economics. We follow this line of work by empirically testing one exemplary extraneous factor within the “enhanced APCO model” (antecedents–privacy concerns–outcome). Specific empirical tests on such biases are rare in the literature which is why we propose and empirically analyze the extraneous influence of a positivity bias. In our case, we hypothesize that the bias is induced by childhood brand nostalgia towards the Pokémon franchise. We analyze our proposition in the context of an online survey with 418 active players of the game. Our results indicate that childhood brand nostalgia influences the privacy calculus by exerting a large effect on the benefits within the trade-off and, therefore, causing a higher use frequency. Our work shows two important implications. First, the behavioral economics perspective on privacy provides additional insights relative to previous research. However, the effects of several other biases and heuristics have to be tested in future work. Second, relying on nostalgia represents an important, but also double-edged, instrument for practitioners to market new services and applications.
Highlights
The privacy calculus states that individuals engage in deliberate trade-offs between benefits and costs when making privacy-related decisions [1]
For our object of study, Pokémon Go, we argue that nostalgia stemming from users’ childhood about the brand Pokémon induces a strong positivity bias (“rose-colored glasses”) which alleviates negative factors and emotions and heightens positive ones
We argue that individuals might have serious privacy concerns about the processing of their personal information by online companies, they do not connect these risks with the company (Niantic) which runs Pokémon Go
Summary
The privacy calculus states that individuals engage in deliberate trade-offs between benefits (e.g., using a technology or disclosing information) and costs (e.g., privacy risks) when making privacy-related decisions [1]. Prior research indicates that nostalgia positively influences technology acceptance of nostalgic games such as Pokémon Go [5]. This study proposes that nostalgic feelings from a user’s childhood may positively bias her or his rationale in the privacy calculus and alleviate possible privacy concerns while increasing perceived benefits of the technology: The user’s view on the privacy calculus is through the rose-colored glasses (Merriam-Webster defines the expression ‘rose-colored glasses’ as having “favorably disposed opinions [of something or somebody]“ [6].) of nostalgia. By introducing and empirically testing this example of a positivity bias, this work partially tests the proposed “enhanced APCO” (antecedents–privacy concerns–outcome) model [2] as a first step towards understanding extraneous factors in privacy-related decision-making processes
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