TY - JOUR
T1 - Consumer Disclosure and Disclosure Avoidance
T2 - A Motivational Framework
AU - White, Tiffany Barnett
N1 - Funding Information:
This article is based on the doctoral dissertation I conducted under the supervision of James R. Bettman and Julie A. Edell. I am grateful to Jim and Julie as well as the additional members of my dissertation committee, John Lynch, Katherine Lemon, and Caryl Rusbult. I also thank Madhu Viswanathan and Brian Wansink for their insights regarding this article. This research was funded in part from Duke University under an award from the General Electric Fund. The findings, opinions and recommendations expressed are my own and are not necessarily those of Duke University or the GE Fund.
PY - 2004
Y1 - 2004
N2 - In this research, we investigate consumers' motivations for disclosing personal information to relationship-seeking marketers. We explore the impact of consumers' relationship perceptions, the nature of benefits offered by marketers in exchange for requested information, and the type of information requested on consumers' disclosure willingness, focusing on consumers' forecasts of 2 types of potential disclosure-related loss (i.e., loss of privacy and loss of face), which are shown to mediate this decision. The results of an experiment revealed that although participants with relatively deep relationship perceptions were more likely to reveal " privacy-related" personal information, they were more reluctant to reveal embarrassing information. The findings also suggest that although loyal customers found the exchange of privacy-related personal information for customized benefit offerings (relative to noncustomized offerings) attractive, the reverse was true for embarrassing information; these participants seemed to find the exchange of customized offerings for this latter type of information unattractive. We discuss the theoretical and practical implications of the findings for consumer researchers and relationship-seeking marketing practitioners.
AB - In this research, we investigate consumers' motivations for disclosing personal information to relationship-seeking marketers. We explore the impact of consumers' relationship perceptions, the nature of benefits offered by marketers in exchange for requested information, and the type of information requested on consumers' disclosure willingness, focusing on consumers' forecasts of 2 types of potential disclosure-related loss (i.e., loss of privacy and loss of face), which are shown to mediate this decision. The results of an experiment revealed that although participants with relatively deep relationship perceptions were more likely to reveal " privacy-related" personal information, they were more reluctant to reveal embarrassing information. The findings also suggest that although loyal customers found the exchange of privacy-related personal information for customized benefit offerings (relative to noncustomized offerings) attractive, the reverse was true for embarrassing information; these participants seemed to find the exchange of customized offerings for this latter type of information unattractive. We discuss the theoretical and practical implications of the findings for consumer researchers and relationship-seeking marketing practitioners.
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U2 - 10.1207/s15327663jcp1401&2_6
DO - 10.1207/s15327663jcp1401&2_6
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:2342662692
SN - 1057-7408
VL - 14
SP - 41
EP - 51
JO - Journal of Consumer Psychology
JF - Journal of Consumer Psychology
IS - 1-2
ER -