The Guilty Pleasure of Watching Like Big Brother: Privacy Attitudes, Voyeurism & Reality Programs

Media commentators have offered different explanations for the rising popularity of reality television. One frequently cited hypothesis is that the rising popularity of reality programs can be attributed to their ability to accommodate television viewers\u27 voyeuristic needs. It has also been suggested that the voyeuristic appeal of reality programs often comes at the price of privacy and dignity of their participants. However, existing literature on audience behavior and reality programming only tangentially addresses the question of how television viewers\u27 voyeuristic orientations and their attitudes about value of privacy factor into the choices they make about consuming reality television. The primary purpose of this dissertation thesis is to fill this void by investigating these two potential drivers of reality television consumption. In order to do so, this project first utilized a crossectional survey, which asked respondents to report the frequency with which they watched 18 reality programs broadcast on major national networks. Participants also responded to a battery of questions regarding their voyeuristic orientation, attitudes about privacy, and their tendency to use television for voyeurism. In addition, a content analysis of reality programs was used to weight the findings from the survey. The findings from this study suggest that voyeurism, as a psychological orientation, is positively related to consumption of reality programs and that this relationship between voyeurism and exposure to reality programming is mediated by a tendency to use television to satisfy voyeurism. With respect to the relationship between privacy attitudes and consumption of reality programming, the findings indicate that one consistent predictor of avoidance of reality programs is the belief that one should be concerned about the privacy of other individuals even if they fail to protect their own privacy. Finally, comparison of unweighted reality television exposure measure and exposure measures weighted by content analysis results revealed that scenes taking place in private or semi-private settings, scenes containing nudity and scenes containing gossip contributed to the voyeuristic appeal of reality programs

News about Genetics and Smoking Priming, Family Smoking History, and News Story Believability on Inferences of Genetic Susceptibility to Tobacco Addiction

Print news stories about genetics convey information to the public. This study assesses the effects of priming a belief in genetic susceptibility to smoking addiction on smokers\u27 inferences about their own susceptibility to smoking addiction, their efficacy to quit smoking, and their intention to get a genetic test for addiction susceptibility. Respondents were 450 young adult smokers surveyed on the telephone in a randomized experiment embedded in a questionnaire about cigarette smoking practices. In the priming condition, respondents heard a news story about genes for smoking addiction. In the unprimed condition, respondents heard a news story concerning the gender of the offspring of smokers. Priming with the genetics news story did not affect respondents\u27 inferences about personal genetic susceptibility to smoking addiction. However, those finding the news story believable and having a strong family history of smoking were more likely to infer a greater personal genetic susceptibility

Socioeconomic Status, Crowding, COVID-19 Perceptions, and Protective Behavior

Crowding, a key factor that catalyzes the transmission of infectious diseases, disproportionately affects individuals from lower socioeconomic groups. The purpose of the current study was to assess whether socioeconomic status (SES) and crowding are related to differences in COVID-19 risk and efficacy perceptions and whether these perceptions explain protective behaviors. We specifically focused on household income and education as indicators of SES, and household crowding and public transportation use as indicators of crowding. Results from an online survey of 387 working adults, collected during the second peak of the pandemic in Turkey, showed that SES and public transportation use were negatively related to COVID-19 risk perceptions. On the other hand, SES, household crowding, and COVID-19 risk and efficacy perceptions were positively related to hygiene-related protective behavior and physical distancing. Moreover, the association between COVID-19 perceived protective norms and physical distancing was moderated by household crowding such that the positive relationship between protective norms and physical distancing was stronger at higher levels of domestic crowding. Yet, robustness checks suggest that further evidence is needed before to make any definitive conclusions about the interaction effect

The guilty pleasure of watching like Big Brother: Privacy attitudes, voyeurism and reality programs

Media commentators have offered different explanations for the rising popularity of reality television. One frequently cited hypothesis is that the rising popularity of reality programs can be attributed to their ability to accommodate television viewers\u27 voyeuristic needs. It has also been suggested that the voyeuristic appeal of reality programs often comes at the price of privacy and dignity of their participants. However, existing literature on audience behavior and reality programming only tangentially addresses the question of how television viewers\u27 voyeuristic orientations and their attitudes about value of privacy factor into the choices they make about consuming reality television. The primary purpose of this dissertation thesis is to fill this void by investigating these two potential drivers of reality television consumption. In order to do so, this project first utilized a cross-sectional survey, which asked respondents to report the frequency with which they watched 18 reality programs broadcast on major national networks. Participants also responded to a battery of questions regarding their voyeuristic orientation, attitudes about privacy, and their tendency to use television for voyeurism. In addition, a content analysis of reality programs was used to weight the findings from the survey. The findings from this study suggest that voyeurism, as a psychological orientation, is positively related to consumption of reality programs and that this relationship between voyeurism and exposure to reality programming is mediated by a tendency to use television to satisfy voyeurism. With respect to the relationship between privacy attitudes and consumption of reality programming, the findings indicate that one consistent predictor of avoidance of reality programs is the belief that one should be concerned about the privacy of other individuals even if they fail to protect their own privacy. Finally, comparison of unweighted reality television exposure measure and exposure measures weighted by content analysis results revealed that scenes taking place in private or semi-private settings, scenes containing nudity and scenes containing gossip contributed to the voyeuristic appeal of reality programs

Publicized Intimacies on Reality Television: An Analysis of Voyeuristic Content and Its Contribution to the Appeal of Reality Programming

Given that reality television is not a cohesive genre, a better understanding of the frequently noted voyeuristic appeal of reality programs would require an analysis of content features that may contribute to their voyeuristic appeal. A survey administered to television viewers and a content analysis of reality programs support hypotheses regarding the voyeuristic appeal of reality programs in general, and suggest that scenes which adopt a fly on the wall perspective, take place in private settings, contain nudity, and/or include gossip, contribute to the voyeuristic appeal of reality programs

The guilty pleasure of watching like Big Brother: Privacy attitudes, voyeurism and reality programs

Media commentators have offered different explanations for the rising popularity of reality television. One frequently cited hypothesis is that the rising popularity of reality programs can be attributed to their ability to accommodate television viewers\u27 voyeuristic needs. It has also been suggested that the voyeuristic appeal of reality programs often comes at the price of privacy and dignity of their participants. However, existing literature on audience behavior and reality programming only tangentially addresses the question of how television viewers\u27 voyeuristic orientations and their attitudes about value of privacy factor into the choices they make about consuming reality television. The primary purpose of this dissertation thesis is to fill this void by investigating these two potential drivers of reality television consumption. In order to do so, this project first utilized a cross-sectional survey, which asked respondents to report the frequency with which they watched 18 reality programs broadcast on major national networks. Participants also responded to a battery of questions regarding their voyeuristic orientation, attitudes about privacy, and their tendency to use television for voyeurism. In addition, a content analysis of reality programs was used to weight the findings from the survey. The findings from this study suggest that voyeurism, as a psychological orientation, is positively related to consumption of reality programs and that this relationship between voyeurism and exposure to reality programming is mediated by a tendency to use television to satisfy voyeurism. With respect to the relationship between privacy attitudes and consumption of reality programming, the findings indicate that one consistent predictor of avoidance of reality programs is the belief that one should be concerned about the privacy of other individuals even if they fail to protect their own privacy. Finally, comparison of unweighted reality television exposure measure and exposure measures weighted by content analysis results revealed that scenes taking place in private or semi-private settings, scenes containing nudity and scenes containing gossip contributed to the voyeuristic appeal of reality programs

It is more than personal: Development and validation of a multidimensional privacy orientation scale

This study summarizes the development and validation of a multidimensional privacy orientation scale designed for measuring privacy attitudes of Social Network Site (SNS) users. Findings confirm the existence of four dimensions: 1) belief in the value of “privacy as a right”; 3) “othercontingent privacy”; 2) “concern about own informational privacy” and 4) “concern about privacy of others.” Moreover, a segmentation of SNS users reveals three types of users: 1) privacy advocates, who are concerned about both their own and other people’s privacy; 2) privacy individualists, who are concerned mostly about their own privacy, and 3) privacy indifferents, whose score on all dimensions are lower than other segments. The results indicate that the four privacy orientation dimensions and three user segments predict key differences in terms of privacy protective behavior, information disclosure, and viewing personal information of others

When more is more? The impact of breadth and depth of information disclosure on attributional confidence about and interpersonal attraction to a social network site profile owner

Social network sites (SNSs) provide users with ample opportunity to share information about themselves and to engage in social browsing to learn about others. This article reports results from two experiments (with participants from the U.S.) that investigate the impacts of breadth and depth of information disclosed in a profile on viewers’ attributional confidence about and interpersonal attraction to the profile owner. In the first experiment (n = 320), participants viewed a profile containing either low or high breadth of information. Analyses indicated that, higher breadth of information shared in the profile increased interpersonal attraction and that attributional confidence mediated this relationship. The second experiment (n = 537) tested the respective influences of breadth (low vs. high) and depth of disclosure (low vs. high) in a profile on perceivers’ attributional confidence and interpersonal attraction. Analyses indicated that, while increasing the breadth of information had a positive impact on interpersonal attraction to profile owners, increasing the depth of information reduced attraction. Additionally, there was a significant interaction between breadth and depth of information in predicting attributional confidence; increasing the depth of information shared in an SNS profile enhanced attributional confidence only when the breadth of information shared was low

Getting the privacy calculus right: Analyzing the relations between privacy concerns, expected benefits, and self-disclosure using response surface analysis

Rational models of privacy self-management such as privacy calculus assume that sharing personal information online can be explained by individuals’ perceptions of risks and benefits. Previous research tested this assumption by conducting conventional multivariate procedures, including path analysis or structural equation modeling. However, these analytical approaches cannot account for the potential conjoint effects of risk and benefit perceptions. In this paper, we use a novel analytical approach called polynomial regressions with response surface analysis (RSA) to investigate potential non-linear and conjoint effects based on three data sets (N1 = 344, N2 = 561, N3 = 1.131). In all three datasets, we find that people self-disclose more when gratifications exceed concerns. In two datasets, we also find that self-disclosure increases when both risk and benefit perceptions are on higher rather than lower levels, suggesting that gratifications play an important role in determining whether and how risk considerations will factor into the decision to disclose information