Suchergebnisse

Privacy policies provide Internet users with the possibility to inform themselves about websites' usage of their disclosed personal data. Strikingly, however, most people tend not to read privacy policies because they are long and cumbersome, indicating that people do not wish to expend much (cognitive) effort on reading such policies. The present study aimed to examine whether shorter privacy policies can be beneficial in informing users about a social networking site's (SNS) privacy practices, and to investigate associations between variables relevant for privacy decision-making using one theory-based integrative model. In an online experiment, participants (N = 305) were asked to create a personal account on an SNS after being given the option to read the privacy policy. Privacy policy length and the SNS's level of privacy were varied, creating a 2 (policy length) x 2 (level of privacy) between-subjects design. The results revealed that participants who saw short policies spent less time on reading but gained higher knowledge about the SNS's privacy practices - due to the fact that they spent more reading time per word. Factual privacy policy knowledge was found to be an indicator for participants' subjective privacy perception. The perception and evaluation of the specific SNS´s privacy level influenced the assessment of privacy costs and benefits. Particularly when benefits were perceived as high, self-disclosure was increased.

On contemporary online news sites, readers are simultaneously exposed to journalistic articles and social reactions toward these messages. Two online experiments (N = 252) addressed whether negative user reactions can attenuate the persuasive influence of the main article, and whether these effects depend on the reputation of the original source. Results showed a selective consideration of user-generated content: Readers took into account comments with high argument quality and ratings of a credible website but did not follow others' opinions if the comments merely contained subjective evaluations. On less reputable websites, user reactions were less influential. Findings are discussed with regard to the interplay of multiple sources.

It was analyzed whether an embodied conversational agent (ECA) has specific advantages when employed with privacy invading technologies such as a biometric security system. The study compares the effects of an ECA interface with the effects of conventional text-based and voice-based interfaces on user acceptance and usability. An additional variable was whether the biometric system falsely rejected the user twice or whether it directly accepted him/her. Results of the 2 × 3 between-subjects design indicated that, although overall the text interface is rated most positive, voice and ECA yield distinct social effects: They have more advantageous consequences when problems arise – i.e., when the user is rejected repeatedly. The implications for social psychology in terms of applicability of new research methods as well as insights concerning fundamental research are discussed.

After tuning messages to their audience's attitude, communicators' subsequent memories for the topic are often biased toward their audience-congruent messages. In the context of personnel assessment in an organization, we examined the role of audience characteristics in this audience-tuning effect. Student communicators tuned their description of an employee to either an equal-status audience (a student temp) or a higher-status audience (a company board member). Audience-tuning occurred under both conditions, but a memory bias was found only in the equal-status condition. This audience-status effect was mediated by epistemic and relational trust in the audience. Apparently, the equal-status audience, while lacking domain-specific expertise, qualifies as a more trustworthy partner in creating a shared reality, which fulfills both epistemic and affiliative motives.

Dieser Sammelband enthält ausgewählte Beiträge der Jahrestagung des "Forum Privatheit" 2021. Darin werden die aktuelle Herausforderungen analysiert, die durch die Entwicklung der Künstlichen Intelligenz (KI) für Privatheit, informationelle Selbstbestimmung, und Demokratie entstehen und wie diese durch Governancemechanismen adressiert werden können. Die Beiträge fokussieren dabei auf den KI-Einsatz zu Zwecken des Profiling und der Überwachung, auf Fragen der Verbreitung und Entdeckung von Desinformation durch KI sowie die Nutzung von KI im Gesundheits- und Pflegebereich.

This article investigates under which conditions users on Twitter engage with or react to social bots. Based on insights from human–computer interaction and motivated reasoning, we hypothesize that (1) users are more likely to engage with human-like social bot accounts and (2) users are more likely to engage with social bots which promote content congruent to the user's partisanship. In a preregistered 3 × 2 within-subject experiment, we asked N = 223 US Americans to indicate whether they would engage with or react to different Twitter accounts. Accounts systematically varied in their displayed humanness (low humanness, medium humanness, and high humanness) and partisanship (congruent and incongruent). In line with our hypotheses, we found that the more human-like accounts are, the greater is the likelihood that users would engage with or react to them. However, this was only true for accounts that shared the same partisanship as the user.

This paper aimed to analyse the potential of new technologies to support volunteer engagement in emergency response. To examine prerequisites for the use of a smartphone‐based application by medically trained volunteers in circumstances in which regular medical resources are exceeded, the influence of volunteering motives and user characteristics were assessed via an online survey. Results demonstrate that value‐oriented individuals evaluated the system more positively and were more willing to participate. Career‐oriented motivation and technical expertise had a partial influence. Different incentives emphasized in the system description did not make any difference, possibly because the overall evaluation was very positive. Among other implications, results point to the relevance of investigating ways to address value‐oriented individuals and to effectively trigger their motivation.

Theoretical approaches as well as empirical results in the area of social capital accumulation on social networking sites suggest that weak ties/bridging versus strong ties/bonding social capital should be distinguished and that while bonding social capital is connected to emotional support, bridging social capital entails the provision of information. Additionally, recent studies imply the notion that weak ties/bridging social capital are gaining increasing importance in today's social media environments. By means of a survey (N = 317) we challenged these presuppositions by assessing the social support functions that are ascribed to three different types of contacts from participants' network (weak, medium, or strong tie). In contrast to theoretical assumptions, we do not find that weak ties are experienced to supply informational support whereas strong ties first and foremost provide emotional support. Instead we find that within social networking sites, strong ties are perceived to provide both emotional and informational support and weak ties are perceived as less important than recent literature assumes.

Medien beeinflussen sowohl den individuellen als auch den politischen, wirtschaftlichen und sozialen Umgang mit Gesundheit und Krankheit. Dieser Band dient der Systematisierung des Forschungsfeldes medialer Gesundheitskommunikation. Neben der Definition und Diskussion von Grundbegriffen werden Darstellungsformen und Nutzung gesundheitsbezogener Medieninhalte beschrieben und Ansätze der Medienwirkungsforschung mit Modellen zur Erklärung individuellen Gesundheitsverhaltens verknüpft. Den Abschluss bilden Strategien der Gesundheitsförderung. Dr. Bettina Fromm ist geschäftsführende Direktorin des Zentrums für Medien- und Gesundheitskommunikation e. V. in Köln. Dr. Eva Baumann ist als Kommunikationswissenschaftlerin tätig und berät Unternehmen und Einrichtungen aus dem Gesundheitsbereich. Dr. Claudia Lampert ist wissenschaftliche Mitarbeiterin am Hans-Bredow-Institut für Medienforschung in Hamburg und dort u. a. für den Bereich Medien und Gesundheitskommunikation zuständig.