Zhu Qiuhua, Sun Rui, Lv Dong, Shen Yiyang, Qin Shukun
Chen Shouren Business School, Quanzhou Normal University, Fujian, China.
School of Business Administration, Huaqiao University, Quanzhou, Fujian, China.
PLoS One. 2025 Aug 20;20(8):e0330438. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0330438. eCollection 2025.
The "privacy paradox" phenomenon and its explanations are becoming impediments to the correct identification of user privacy attitudes, and understanding the link between privacy attitude instability and behavior helps enterprises to correctly interpret user privacy needs, ensuring the long-term and steady growth of digital businesses. Grounded in the bounded theory of limited cognitive resources and associative-propositional evaluation model (APE model), this research employs ERP technology, targeting the instability of individual attitudes, the study introduces the usefulness of recommendation information and the intrusiveness of recommendation information, privacy intrusiveness and information interestingness, recommendation usefulness and information aversion as experimental stimulus variables of attitude ambivalence, and explores the internal cognitive mechanism of user privacy attitude ambivalence and disclosure behavior. The results show: (1) Under conditions of high intrusiveness of recommendation information, users are more prone to disclose privacy if the recommendation is viewed as highly useful compared to when it is less useful; there is no noteworthy disparity in privacy disclosure under conditions of low informational intrusiveness. (2) Relative to conditions of both high informational intrusiveness with low usefulness, and low privacy intrusiveness combined with low information interestingness, users manifest a higher propensity for privacy disclosure under the circumstances of low privacy invasiveness with highly information interestingness, and high recommendation usefulness along with high information aversion, prompting reduced amplitudes in P2 and N2 waves. Moreover, a larger P2 wave amplitude is evoked when there is lower perceived usefulness in recommendations coupled with less information aversion, as contrasted with higher perceived usefulness and higher aversion. This study examines the cognitive mechanism between privacy attitude ambivalence and disclosure conduct, presenting a fresh perspective for research on the "privacy paradox", enabling businesses to deeply grasp the instability of user attitudes in conjunction with behavioral responses, significantly contributing to better protection of user privacy and the improvement of the user experience.
“隐私悖论”现象及其解释正成为正确识别用户隐私态度的障碍，而理解隐私态度不稳定性与行为之间的联系有助于企业正确解读用户隐私需求，确保数字业务的长期稳定增长。本研究基于有限认知资源的有限理论和联想命题评估模型（APE模型），采用ERP技术，针对个体态度的不稳定性，引入推荐信息的有用性和推荐信息的侵扰性、隐私侵扰性和信息趣味性、推荐有用性和信息厌恶感作为态度矛盾的实验刺激变量，探讨用户隐私态度矛盾和披露行为的内部认知机制。结果表明：（1）在推荐信息侵扰性高的情况下，与推荐有用性较低时相比，如果推荐被视为非常有用，用户更倾向于披露隐私；在信息侵扰性低的情况下，隐私披露没有显著差异。（2）相对于信息侵扰性高但有用性低以及隐私侵扰性低且信息趣味性低的情况，在隐私侵扰性低但信息趣味性高以及推荐有用性高且信息厌恶感高的情况下，用户表现出更高的隐私披露倾向，同时P2波和N2波的振幅减小。此外，与感知有用性较高和厌恶感较高相比，当推荐的感知有用性较低且信息厌恶感较少时，诱发的P2波振幅更大。本研究考察了隐私态度矛盾与披露行为之间的认知机制，为“隐私悖论”研究提供了新的视角，使企业能够结合行为反应深入把握用户态度的不稳定性，对更好地保护用户隐私和改善用户体验具有重要意义。
