Examining profile disclosure on online social networks: an affective, behavioural, and cognitive perspective

Abstract

The magnitude of information shared on online social networks (OSN), such as Facebook, and their exponential growth brings to light the importance of understanding individual's profile disclosure. Encouraging disclosure is crucial for OSN to succeed as a business model, i.e., by using OSN as an advertising platform. A model was built making use of the theory of planned behaviour (TPB) augmented by the ABC model of attitude, to investigate the affective, behavioural, and cognitive antecedents to attitude. To validate the model a survey was conducted, and the results were analysed with SmartPLS. Privacy risk, benefits, OSN trust, interpersonal trust, and OSN use were all found to significantly impact attitude, while attitude, social influence, and control all significantly impact profile disclosure. This research successfully applies TPB, and shows the value of including affective, behaviour, and cognitive antecedents in the OSN context. It also uniquely operationalises benefits, as well as, trust.