description
Privacy plays a role in many different situations, such as when we browse the internet, when we change our clothes in the swimming pool, or when we want to have intimate conversations with our loved ones in a restaurant. People can be expected to differ in how much they value privacy in general. To measure that, however, we need to have a measurement for ‘privacy as a value’. In this study, you will help to develop the measurement of the privacy as a value.
Values have been defined as “transsituational goals, varying in importance, that serve as guiding principles in the life of a person” (p.21, Schwartz, 1994). The latest version of the much used scale was extended to have 19 values in it, but did not include privacy (e.g. Schwartz et al., 2017). Huijts and Haans (2024) recently argued that privacy should also be in the scale and developed a first measure for it. Building further on various studies arguing that privacy is a multi-dimensional concept (e.g. Burgoon, 1982), the researchers and various students developed and tested a three dimensional measurement of privacy as a value: informational/online privacy, observational privacy and social/interactional privacy (e.g. Jansen, 2024; Markink, 2024; Russa, 2024, Ketheeswaranathan, 2025). While being a very useful scale, the measurement of particularly social/interactional privacy still needs improvement. Social/interactional privacy has been defined as the control a person has over their interpersonal relationships and interactions (Burgoon, 1982) and was later emphasised to be about the “who, what, when and where of encounters” (p.133, Burgoon et al., 1989). The various studies have not able to measure this concept well.
Study A. In this research project, you will improve the measurement of social/interactional privacy as a value by interviewing people on the meaning of the concept and devising new items to measure it. Then you will test the validity of the newly devised measured. You can also test its validity by examining how it correlates with other variables that one would expect it to correlate with, such as keeping strangers at a distance, and regulating your social interaction with colleagues or friends.
Study B. In this research project, you will start to examine the concept of privacy as a value again, from scratch, by developing a large set of items to test all the varying aspects of privacy, using insights from the many studies that have been trying to distinguish various dimensions of privacy. You will explore again how many dimensions there are in the privacy as a value measurement, and whether you find the same or different dimensions as the earlier studies did.
Research questions
- How many dimensions of privacy as a value can we distinguish and how do they align with earlier conceptualisations of the multi-dimensionality of privacy as a value?
- Can we more reliably measure interactional privacy as a value and distinguish it from the other dimensions of privacy as a value?
- Does the improved measure of interactional privacy correlate with other variables in the way we would expect it to (e.g. gender, behaviours, privacy risk perception)?
Research method
Study A. You will do a multi method study; first you will perform interviews to come up with new items for the scale, and then do a survey study to test your newly developed items.
Study B. Based on a literature review you devise many items that you will test in a survey study.
Data-analysis
The data of this study will be analysed (study A) in a qualitative and quantitative way and (B) only in a quantitative way.
Literature
Burgoon, J. K. (1982). Privacy and Communication. Annals of the International Communication Association. https://doi.org/10.1080/23808985.1982.11678499
Burgoon, J. K., Parrott, R., Le Poire, B. A., Kelley, D. L., Walther, J. B., & Perry, D. (1989). Maintaining and Restoring Privacy through Communication in Different Types of Relationships. Journal of Social and Personal Relationships, 6(2), 131–158. https://doi.org/10.1177/026540758900600201
Huijts, N. M. A., & Haans, A. (2024). Values as causes of emotions and acceptability in the digital risk context: an extension of the values scale with privacy. Journal of Risk Research, 1–26. https://doi.org/10.1080/13669877.2024.2423203
Jansen, L. (2024). Privacy as a Value: Exploring the Integration of Privacy into Schwartz’s Value Theory [MSc thesis]. Eindhoven University of Technology.
Markink, T. (2024). Privacy as a Value: Understanding conflicting values in the privacy paradox by using privacy as a distinctive value within Schwartz’s value theory [MSc thesis]. Eindhoven University of Technology.
Russa, M. (2024). Can Social Privacy as a Value be Measured Reliably within a Romanian and German Sample, and Can It Explain Different Privacy-Related Behaviors? [BSc thesis]. University of Enschede.
Ketheeswaranathan, S. (2025) Measuring Social Privacy as a Value in a Multi-Country Sample from Germany, Spain, and France. [BSc thesis]. University of Enschede.
Schwartz, S. H. (1994). Are There Universal Aspects in the Structure and Contents of Human Values? Journal of Social Issues, 50(4), 19–45. https://doi.org/10.1111/J.1540-4560.1994.TB01196.X
Schwartz, S. H., Cieciuch, J., Vecchione, M., Torres, C., Dirilen-Gumus, O., & Butenko, T. (2017). Value tradeoffs propel and inhibit behavior: Validating the 19 refined values in four countries. European Journal of Social Psychology, 47(3), 241–258. https://doi.org/10.1002/ejsp.2228