Rethinking the Privacy Calculus: On the Role of Dispositional Factors and Affect

Existing research on information privacy has mostly relied on the privacy calculus model which views privacy-related decision-making as a rational process where individuals weigh the anticipated risks of disclosing personal data against the potential benefits. However, scholars have recently challenged two basic propositions of the privacy calculus model. First, some authors have distinguished between general and situational factors in the context of privacy calculus and have argued that perceived risks and perceived benefits are primarily related to a situation-specific privacy assessment. Second, a growing body of literature has argued that rational considerations in privacy assessment are bounded by limited resources or heuristic thinking. In this research, we address both of these issues and develop a conceptual model that suggests (1) that dispositional factors such as privacy concerns and institutional trust may affect situation-specific privacy calculus and (2) that privacy assessment may also be determined by momentary affective states.