Providing personal information to the benefit of others

Personal information is a precious resource, not only for commercial interests but also for the public benefit. Reporting personal location data, for example, may aid efficient traffic flows and sharing one’s health status may be a crucial instrument of disease management. We experimentally study individuals’ willingness to contribute personal information to information-based public goods. Our data provide evidence that—compared to monetary contributions to public goods—information may be substantially under-provided. We show that the degree of information provision is strongly correlated to the information’s implicit (emotional and cognitive) costs. Individual’s reluctance to share personal information with high implicit, in particular emotional costs, may seriously limit the effectiveness of information-based public goods.