The Social Media Lab is interested in understanding how perceived social norms affect what people choose to disclose online.
Led by Philipp Masur, who was a visiting post-doc in the lab during 2019, we have conducted three studies with the goal of investigating whether critical reflective abilities and subtle research design interventions can mitigate the effects of prevailing social norms, and thereby promote more privacy aware behavior on SNSs. By examining relevant behavioral antecedents of privacy and disclosure behaviors in social media, this study has important implications for privacy-friendly designs and educational interventions that will help to instill more privacy-aware behavior in social media users.
Masur, P., DiFranzo, D., Bazarova, N. N. (2020) Behavioral contagion in social media: Effects of social norms, design interventions, and critical media literacy on self-disclosure. To be presented at the 70th Annual International Communication Association Conference, Gold Cost, Australia. Top Paper for Communication and Technology Division.