Privacy violation and diverse choice: How privacy violation shapes subsequent consumers’ variety-seeking behaviors?

Xianan He, Qing Xia and Wenqi Feng

Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, 2025, vol. 87, issue C

Abstract: Privacy violations have become a frequent and unavoidable part of daily life, yet their impact on subsequent consumer behavior remains underexplored. Drawing on compensatory consumption theory, this research investigates how privacy violations influence consumers’ variety-seeking behaviors. Across five studies, we demonstrate that consumers experiencing a privacy violation exhibit heightened variety-seeking in subsequent product choices. This effect is driven by a diminished sense of control, which prompts consumers to seek variety as a cope way to restore control. However, this tendency diminishes when the sense of control is restored through alternative means or when variety-seeking is unrelated to control restoration. Additionally, this effect is attenuated when consumers are provided with mechanistic explanations, which help them regain a sense of control over their data usage.

Keywords: Privacy violation; Variety-seeking behavior; Sense of control (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2025
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:joreco:v:87:y:2025:i:c:s0969698925001766

DOI: 10.1016/j.jretconser.2025.104397

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