The role of affect and cognition on online consumers' decision to disclose personal information to unfamiliar online vendors

Based on the privacy calculus framework and the stimulus-organism-response (S-O-R) model, this study examines online information disclosure decision as a result of affective and cognitive reactions of online consumers over several stages, i.e. an initial stage where an overall impression is formed about an unfamiliar online vendor, and a subsequent information exchange stage where information necessary to complete the ecommerce transaction will be provided to the online vendor. We found that, initial emotions formed from an overall impression of a Web site act as initial hurdles to information disclosure. Once online consumers enter the information exchange stage, fairness-based levers further adjust privacy beliefs. (C) 2011 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.