The Effect of Acute Stress on Privacy Decision-Making

Abstract

Internet users’ digital privacy decisions are closely connected with their level of trust of information security, privacy concern, and perceived risks and benefits of internet use. One psychological factor that may potentially alter such privacy-related behaviors is acute stress, as it has shown to influence individual’s general decision-making. The goal of this between-subject designed research is to explore whether acute stress can affect decision-making in the digital privacy domain. Additionally, other privacy-related factors that may moderate this relationship, including trust and privacy fatigue, will be examined. We expect that participants who are exposed to acute stress will have poorer privacy decision-making outcomes, which will be represented by more frequent acceptance of online cookies and default privacy settings. Moreover, this relationship is expected to be magnified among individuals with low levels of Internet trust and those with high levels of privacy fatigue.