“I” Am Willing to Disclose, but “We” are Unwilling: The Impact of Self-Construal on Individuals’ Willingness to Disclose

PURPOSE: In the big data era, many institutions (ie, hospitals) and firms use various methods to encourage people to disclose more personal information to gain competitive advantages in many businesses, such as healthcare and the Internet of Things (IoT) devices. Discussions on antecedents of individuals’ willingness to reveal private data from individual differences perspective are limited. Drawing on information boundary theory, we examine how self-construal prompts a different regulatory focus (promotion focus versus prevention focus), thus, affects individuals’ willingness to disclose private data. METHODS: A mixed-method approach was used to examine our hypothesis. Study 1 (N = 93, participants in China) manipulated self-construal in lab experiments and examined participants’ actual disclosure behavior in the emerging IoT context of connected cars. Study 2 (an online survey, N = 200, participants in US) measured chronic self-construal in another disclosure context (healthcare app), replicating the preliminary effect and examined the mediating effect of the regulatory focus. Study 3 (an online experiment, N = 284, participants in US) tested the moderating effect of message framing. RESULTS: Study 1 showed that participants primed an independent self-construal were more willing to share private information, whether it is real driving data or private identity information. Study 2 showed that independent (interdependent) self-construal individuals tend to have promotion focus (prevention focus), thus leading to higher (lower) willingness to disclose personal health information. Study 3 demonstrated that independent (interdependent) self-construal individuals are more willing to share information when presented with gain-framing (loss-framing) information. CONCLUSION: Independent (interdependent) self-construal positively (negatively) affects individuals’ willingness to disclose and these effects will be mediated by regulatory focus and moderated by message farming. Our study provides a theoretical paradigm that is new to the willingness to disclose literature, and offers an effective, actionable strategy on how institutions and firms can facilitate individuals’ personal information disclosure.