Group closeness effects on co-owned information sharing: A multilevel perspective

Mingxin Zhang, Ofir Turel and Anne Zöll

Publications of Darmstadt Technical University, Institute for Business Studies (BWL) from Darmstadt Technical University, Department of Business Administration, Economics and Law, Institute for Business Studies (BWL)

Abstract: Co-owned information contains personal details about multiple individuals, often nested within a social group. It is important to study the sharing of such information because its careless disclosure can violate the privacy of all co-owners. What makes such sharing decisions unique is that they are often conducted within a tight social context, the attributes of which can systematically affect the decisions of all individuals nested within the group. This necessitates multi-level theorizing and testing. Doing so, we theorize the impact of group closeness (a group-level attribute) on co-owned information sharing by the group members (individual-level reflections and behaviors). We tested our ideas through a deceptive procedure: ninety participants in 40 groups were asked to voluntarily share a co-owned photo of 2–3 group members, for algorithm training purposes (cover story). Hierarchical Linear Modeling revealed (1) the retained relevance of self-centered private information sharing motivators and deterrents in group contexts, and (2) a cross-level effect of group closeness: it weakened the negative effect of privacy concerns on actual co-owned information sharing. The findings underscore the role of social context in determining the potency of privacy concerns to drive the privacy behaviors of individuals nested within this context.

Date: 2026-09-16
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