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Institut für Kommunikationswissenschaft

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    A gendered perspective on online privacy and self-disclosure
    (2024) Frener, Regine; Trepte, Sabine
    In research on online privacy and self-disclosure, gender is commonly included as a potentially predictive variable. The results are heterogeneous and sometimes controversial; explanations are often lacking or based on stereotypical assumptions. With this dissertation, I seek to provide a gender-focused perspective on online privacy and self-disclosure by taking a closer look at gender effects in privacy-related outcomes, studying the implementation of gender as a research variable, and investigating how gender is related to people’s inherent need for privacy. To this end, I present a short introduction in the first chapter, followed by four publications: a book chapter on privacy and gender (Study 1), a systematic literature review (Study 2), an empirical investigation of gender effects in privacy behavior (Study 3), and the development of the Need for Privacy Scale (NFP-S; Study 4). In Study 1, the book chapter, I summarize key theoretical advancements in gender and privacy research in line with the feminist movement. Further, empirical findings on gender disparities are presented from a communication science perspective. I discuss the ongoing gender-based digital divide as well as risks associated with automatic gender categorization. Lastly, I address the problems of conceptualizing gender as a binary, static variable, and propose alternative perspectives for more equitable treatment. In Study 2, my co-author Prof. Dr. Sabine Trepte and I examine how scholars in the field of online privacy incorporate gender into their research. For n = 107 articles reporting gender effects (or a lack thereof), we assess whether gender theory is included, to what extent it is referred to, and what function it serves. The results show that in most studies, gender is undertheorized, resulting in reduced explanatory power and the risk of gender essentialism. To meet the need for gender theorization in online privacy research we identified in Study 2, I present an empirical investigation of the social web gendered privacy model (Thelwall, 2011) in Study 3. The model aims to link gender differences in online privacy concerns, data protection behavior and online self-disclosure and explain them via gender differences in offline factors. Using longitudinal data (n = 1,043), I found partial support for the relationships between the privacy-related variables as well as for the transfer from offline to online contexts. The expected gender differences did not arise consistently, which challenges the model’s claim that women constitute an especially vulnerable population regarding social media usage. To offer added value for the broader field of privacy-related research, my co-authors Jana Dombrowski and Prof. Dr. Sabine Trepte and I present the Need for Privacy Scale (NFP-S) in Study 4. The NFP-S is a concise measure of the need for privacy as a personality trait, developed to be applied in any context. Against the theoretical backdrop of Burgoon’s (1982) privacy dimensions, we propose a second-order model with informational, psychological, and physical need for privacy as the first-order factors. In two large-scale surveys (Study 1: n1 = 3,278; n2 = 1,226; Study 2: N = 1,000), the scale was validated with regard to relevant personality traits, privacy-related cognitive criteria and behaviors as well as socio-demographic variables. With the goal of disentangling (biological) sex and gender, we include self-assessed femininity and masculinity. We find that congruity between participants’ perception of their femininity/masculinity and their sex is related to a higher need for privacy. In the overall discussion, I combine insights from the studies, provide ideas for future research, and offer societal and practical implications. Taken together, the four studies contribute to the field of online privacy by emphasizing the psychological perspective of gender as a socially constructed, multifaceted, and dynamic construct. Adopting this view is desirable for privacy researchers, as it helps to better understand privacy-related attitudes and decision-making, hence increasing overall validity. Furthermore, a differentiated understanding of gender is needed to prevent oversimplifications and stereotyping and to promote ethical and fair research.