Personality traits Influence Internet Privacy Concerns through Social Anxiety and Privacy-Preserving Self-Efficacy

Area of Science:

• Psychology
• Internet Studies
• Information Security

Background:

• The internet's growth facilitates information exchange but raises privacy concerns.
• Previous research focused on demographics and personality, overlooking interpersonal and psychological factors.
• Social anxiety and privacy-preserving self-efficacy are crucial yet understudied variables.

Purpose of the Study:

• To investigate the mediating roles of social anxiety and privacy-preserving self-efficacy.
• To explore the relationship between personality traits and Internet privacy concerns.
• To understand how offline psychological factors influence online behavior.

Main Methods:

• A structured questionnaire surveyed 824 Chinese university students.
• Structural equation modeling analyzed the data.
• Examined mediating effects of social anxiety and privacy-preserving self-efficacy.

Main Results:

• Conscientiousness, privacy-preserving self-efficacy, and social anxiety positively predicted privacy concerns.
• Extroversion, agreeableness, and openness negatively impacted privacy concerns.
• Social anxiety and privacy-preserving self-efficacy mediated the links between agreeableness/conscientiousness and privacy concerns.

Conclusions:

• Personality traits, social anxiety, and self-efficacy significantly shape Internet privacy concerns.
• Offline psychological states play a vital role in online privacy behaviors.
• A multifaceted strategy is needed to mitigate Internet privacy issues among students.