Priming & Privacy: How Subtle Trust Cues Online Affect Consumer Disclosure and Purchase Intentions

Consumers are quick to say that maintaining privacy in an increasingly digital world is more and more difficult (Pilot). Yet recent research (Mourey) suggests that consumers are more sensitive to subtle cues when they experience a choice as “feeling difficult.” The purpose of the current project is to explore whether the increased feelings of difficulty in maintaining privacy online counterintuitively makes consumers more likely to disclose personal information when exposed to subtle cues that prime “trust.” Five studies show that individuals are more likely to disclose highly personal information based on subtle cues of trust including verbal trust primes (Study 1), social network size (Study 2), friends’ online engagement (Study 3), and the verbal and visual fluency of a website’s privacy policy (Study 4), all without their conscious awareness.