Too Much Choice: End-User Privacy Decisions in the Context of Choice Proliferation

Choice proliferation, a research stream in psychology, studies adverse effects of human decision-making as the number of options to choose from increases. We test if these effects can be elicited in a privacy context. Decision field theory suggests two factors that potentially affect end-users’ reflection of disclosure decisions: (1) choice amount, which we test by changing the number of checkboxes in a privacy settings dialog; and (2) choice structure, tested by varying the sensitivity of personal data items which are jointly controlled by each checkbox. We test both factors in a quantitative 2 × 2 between-subject experiment with stimuli calibrated in a pre-study with 60 respondents. In the main experiment, 112 German-speaking university students were asked to enter personal data into an ostensible business networking website and decide if and with whom it should be shared. Using an established item battery, we find that participants who are confronted with a larger amount of privacy options subsequently report more negative feelings, experience more regret, and are less satisfied with the choices made. We observe a similar tendency, albeit weaker and statistically insignificant in our small sample, for the complexity of the choice structure if the number of options remains constant.