Sabine Trepte

University of Hohenheim · School of Communication, Dept. Media Psychology

People around the globe now regularly interact with family and friends through social network sites (SNSs). In the present paper, we investigated the differences between social interactions in online and offline contexts as well as users’ satisfaction with the social support received in these contexts. It was hypothesized that SNSs are better set u...

Gender diversity and the lack of women in leadership in academia have been issues of academic interest for decades. However, little is known about gender diversity at academic conferences as an essential aspect of academia. We investigated 86,719 contributions to International Communication Association (ICA) conferences over the past 18 years with...

When deciding what to disclose online, social network site users weigh benefits against risks—for example, expectations of social support versus privacy concerns. Users are also influenced by a social network site's affordances. In this study, we applied the privacy calculus model to investigate whether and how affordances affect self-disclosure. S...

Given the frequent observation of gender differences in privacy-related outcomes, we wanted to investigate how these studies theorize gender. We conducted a content analysis of 107 studies on the topic of gender and online privacy to determine to what extent gender theory is implemented (Research Question 1), identify the function of gender theory...

Social media allow political parties to conduct political behavioral targeting in order to address and persuade specific groups of users and potential voters. This has been criticized: Most social media users do not know about these microtargeting strategies, and the majority of people who are aware of targeted political advertising say that it is...

The privacy paradox states that people’s concerns about online privacy are unrelated to their online sharing of personal information. On the basis of a representative sample of the German population, which includes 1,403 respondents interviewed at three waves separated by 6 months, we investigate the privacy paradox from a longitudinal perspective....

Die Nutzung von und die Kommunikation mit sozialen Medien basiert auf dem Austausch persönlicher Daten. Dabei können Privatheitsrisiken entstehen, vor denen man sich oft nur schwer schützen kann. Damit Menschen Online-Angebote selbstbestimmt nutzen können, ist ein gewisser Schutz ihrer Daten erforderlich. Immer häufiger wird die Online-Privatheitsk...

In the last 10 years, many canonical findings in the social sciences appear unreliable. This so-called “replication crisis” has spurred calls for open science practices, which aim to increase the reproducibility, replicability, and generalizability of findings. Communication research is subject to many of the same challenges that have caused low re...

Previous research has shown that people seldom experience privacy violations while using the Internet, such as unwanted and unknown sharing of personal information, credit card fraud, or identity theft. With this study, we ask whether individuals’ online privacy concerns increase and online information disclosure decreases if they experience such a...

Researchers' national and gender diversity are some of the most important goals of our discipline in order to ensure the representation of diverse perspectives, and has been done at the university and academic association level to follow-up on this goal. Nevertheless, there is still room for development. In this ongoing process, diversity can be ma...

According to the privacy calculus, both privacy concerns and expected gratifications explain self-disclosure online. So far, however, most findings were based on self-reports, and little is known about whether the privacy calculus can be used to explain observations of actual behavior. Likewise, we still know little as to whether the privacy calcul...

Privacy has been defined as the selective control of information sharing, where control is key. For social media, however, an individual user’s informational control has become more difficult. In this theoretical article, I review how the term control is part of theorizing on privacy, and I develop an understanding of online privacy with communicat...

In the recent decades, privacy scholarship has made significant progress. Most of it was achieved in monodisciplinary works. However, privacy has a deeply interdisciplinary nature. Most importantly, societies as well as individuals experience privacy as being influenced by legal, technical, and social norms and structures. In this article, we hence...

Privacy has been defined as the selective control of information sharing, where control is key. For social media, however, an individual user’s informational control has become more difficult. Hence, privacy is perceived as being closely related with control, but social media information is not under the individual user’s control. In this theoretic...

In the recent decades, privacy scholarship has made significant progress. Most of it was achieved in monodisciplinary works. However, privacy has a deeply interdisciplinary nature. Most importantly, societies as well as individuals experience privacy as being influenced by legal, technical, and social norms and structures. In this paper, we hence a...

When deciding what to disclose online, social network site users weigh benefits against risks-for example, expectations of social support versus privacy concerns. Users are also influenced by a social network site's affordances. In this study, we applied the privacy calculus model to investigate whether and how affordances affect self-disclosure. S...

When deciding what to disclose online, social network site users weigh benefits against risks—for example, expectations of social support versus privacy concerns. Users are also influenced by a social network site's affordances. In this study, we applied the privacy calculus model to investigate whether and how affordances affect self-disclosure. S...

The privacy paradox states that people’s concerns about online privacy are unrelated to their online sharing of personal information. Using a representative sample of the German population, which includes 1403 respondents who were interviewed at three waves separated by 6 months, we investigate the privacy paradox from a longitudinal perspective, d...

User erleben Unterhaltung online anders als mit klassischen Medien: Sie produzieren selbst unterhaltenden Content, sie kommunizieren mit anderen über ihre Beiträge oder Kommentare und die Kontaktaufnahme ist Teil der Unterhaltung im Netz. Aus den Möglichkeiten der Produktion und Interaktion ergeben sich Herausforderungen für die klassischen Unterha...

New communication media such as social networking sites (SNSs) and instant messengers (IMs) challenge users’ privacy perceptions. Technical infrastructures and the flow of digital information lead to novel privacy risks that individuals are often not acquainted with. Users’ subjective perceptions of privacy may thus be flawed and lead to irrational...

Privatheit ist gewinnt vor allem in einem sozialen und kommunikativen Kontext an Bedeutung. Die Perspektiven und Trends der Privatheit beziehen sich also immer darauf, welchen Stellenwert Fragen des Datenschutzes, der Selbst-Preisgabe und der informationellen Selbstbestimmung in unserem Alltag haben. Wir möchten in diesem Beitrag aus verschiedenen...

In the present study, we investigated long-term effects of self-disclosure on social support in face-to-face and instant messenger (IM) communication between mutual friends. Using a representative sample of 583 German IM users, we explored whether self-disclosure and positive experiences with regard to social support would dynamically interact in t...

Kaum greifbare Privatheitseingriffe sowie ein mangelndes Bewusstsein für daraus entstehende gesellschaftliche Konsequenzen lassen nur wenige Internetnutzerinnen und -nutzer Vorkehrungen zum Schutz ihrer Privatheit treffen oder sich politisch für mehr Datenschutz einsetzen. Vielmehr offenbaren Individuen täglich eine große Menge personenbezogener In...

Digital technologies challenge the existing expectations of privacy for both individual users and societies at large. Although numerous surveys and experiments have studied how individual users respond to these challenges, we know little about such perceptions and debates in the larger public. This study investigated this question by analysing Germ...

The “privacy calculus” approach to studying online privacy implies that willingness to engage in disclosures on social network sites (SNSs) depends on evaluation of the resulting risks and benefits. In this article, we propose that cultural factors influence the perception of privacy risks and social gratifications. Based on survey data collected f...

Social identity theory and self-categorization theory suggest that people categorize themselves as belonging to certain groups such as nationality, gender, or even sports teams. Social identity theory focuses on how group memberships guide intergroup behavior and influence an individual's self-concept. Closely tied to self-categorization is an indi...

Zusammenfassung. Politisches Wissen der Bürgerinnen und Bürger gilt als wesentlich für die Handlungsfähigkeit einer Demokratie und wird intensiv erforscht. Derzeit liegt jedoch kein Messinstrument vor, das theoretisch hergeleitet relevante Dimensionen des politischen Wissens diagnostiziert und frei für Forschungszwecke verfügbar ist. Wir entwickelt...

Online-Privatheitskompetenz gilt in der medienpsychologischen Forschung als wichtiger Einflussfaktor auf das Privatheitsverhalten in Online-Umgebungen. Eine Skala zur Erfassung dieser Kompetenz fehlt jedoch. Ziel dieser Arbeit war entsprechend die Entwicklung und Validierung einer umfassenden Skala zur Messung von Online-Privatheitskompetenz. In Vo...

Does communication on social network sites (SNSs) or instant messengers (IMs) reinforce or displace face-to-face (FtF) communication, and how do the 3 channels affect loneliness and life satisfaction? Using cross-lagged structural equation modeling in a longitudinal and representative sample from Germany, we found that SNS communication increased b...

Using the theory of fluid-crystallized intelligence, we argue that with growing age, political discussion becomes less important as a complement to news exposure in political knowledge building. We applied moderated mediation analyses to the survey data of N = 69,125 German respondents. The data supported the hypothesis that news exposure influence...

With this report, we present the results of the Hohenheim study on privacy attitudes, perceptions, and behaviors in the German population. The findings in this report stem from the first wave of an ongoing longitudinal panel study in which a representative panel of participants was surveyed five times over the course of three years. The first wave,...

International news articles often compare different countries, favoring one country over another. On the basis of this notion, we hypothesized that when people read international news articles favoring their own country over another, they would afterwards evaluate their country (in-group) better than the other country (out-group) – a tendency refer...

This research report presents comparative results from five nations (United States of America, United Kingdom, Germany, the Netherlands, and China) with regard to social media use, self-disclosure, privacy perceptions and attitudes, and privacy behavior in online environments. The data stemmed from an online survey that was conducted from November,...

Over the course of the last years, privacy in the Internet has attracted a lot of public attention and stimulated numerous scientific studies. When conducting research on privacy, the entire spectrum of human communication and interaction needs to be addressed. The core aspects are privacy related attitudes and privacy related behaviours. In additi...

Technische Innovation und der kommunikative Alltag permanenter Vernetzung Die Verfügbarkeit von mobilem Breitbandinternet versetzt mittlerweile wachsende Bevölkerungsanteile – in einigen Segmenten wie den hochgebildeten und einkom-mensstarken jungen urbanen Eliten sogar die dominierende Mehrheit – in die Lage, Dienste und Funktionen der Online-Komm...

The struggle we currently perceive in terms of social media privacy may be the result of the incompatible natures of “warm” and “cold” affordances. Whereas social media’s warm affordances reflect long-standing privacy routines and expectations, cold affordances seem to challenge and sometimes violate them. Sharing under the realm of warm affordance...

Empirical research has revealed disparities of internet users’ online privacy attitudes and online privacy behaviors. Although users express concerns about disclosing personal data in the internet, they share personal and sometimes intimate details of their and others lives in various online environments. This may possibly be explained by the knowl...

Der Schutz der Privatsphäre im Internet ist nicht erst seit der NSA-Affäre ein vieldiskutiertes Thema. Im Kern drehen sich alle Debatten um die Frage der informationellen Selbstbestimmung – also darum, ob Internetnutzer ihre eigenen Daten selbstbestimmt verwenden können und ob sie wissen und auch damit einverstanden sind, was mit ihren Daten geschi...

Der Schutz der Privatsphäre im Internet ist nicht erst seit der NSA-Affäre ein vieldiskutiertes Thema. Im Kern drehen sich alle Debatten um die Frage der informationellen Selbstbestimmung – also darum, ob Internetnutzer ihre eigenen Daten selbstbestimmt verwenden können und ob sie wissen und auch damit einverstanden sind, was mit ihren Daten geschi...

The privacy paradox states that online privacy concerns do not sufficiently explain online privacy behaviors on social network sites (SNSs). In this study, it was first asked whether the privacy paradox would still exist when analyzed as in prior research. Second, it was hypothesized that the privacy paradox would disappear when analyzed in a new a...

People around the globe now regularly interact with family and friends through social network sites (SNSs). In this article, we investigated the differences between social interactions in online and offline contexts as well as users' satisfaction with the social support received in these contexts. It was hypothesized that SNSs are better set up for...

In offline settings, authentic behavior has frequently been linked to increased well-being. Social network sites (SNSs) provide a new venue for authenticity, yet the effects of online authenticity are largely unknown. The present study investigated the reciprocal effects of authenticity on SNSs and the psycho-logical well-being of SNS users in a tw...

This research report presents data from a study conducted in Germany based on a 3-year panel design. From October 2009 to April 2012, five waves of data collection were established. N = 327 participants from a convenience sample gave answers to questions regarding media use, privacy behaviors, well-being, social support, authenticity, and specific...

Viele Modelle und Studien, die Einfluss auf das Verständnis von Medienwirkungen und auf die kommunikationswissenschaftliche Forschung im Bereich der Medienwirkungen haben, sind in Allianz mit psychologischer Forschung entstanden. Legendär sind die frühen Studien zur „Psychologie des Radios“ von Cantril und Allport (1935) oder die Radiostudien von P...

In social psychology, consistency theories constitute a body of four theories: → Leon Festinger's → cognitive dissonance theory (1957), Fritz Heider's balance theory (1946, 1958), Charles Osgood and Percy Tannenbaum's consistency theory (1955), and Rosenberg's model of affective–cognitive consistency (1956).

Communications and personal information that are posted online are usually accessible to a vast number of people. Yet when personal data exist online , they may be searched, reproduced and mined by advertisers, merchants, service providers or even stalkers. Many users know what may happen to their information, while at the same time they act as...

Social network sites are known for intruding their users’ privacy per default. The networks use and sell demographic information for targeted advertising (Acquisti et al. 2007). Data are replicated by users and transferred to unknown third parties; the user’s utterances (e.g., on fan pages) are searched, analyzed, and scaled in market research (Nis...

In the present study, the interplay of player performance, game-related self-efficacy experiences, and the resulting effects on game enjoyment are investigated. We hypothesized that a player's performance stimulates enjoyment via its potential to stimulate game-related self-efficacy experiences. In a laboratory setting, participants (N = 213) playe...

Who do people want to be in virtual worlds? Video game players can create their avatars with characteristics similar to themselves, create a superhero that is predominantly designed to win, or chose an in-between strategy. In a quasi-experimental study, players were expected to prefer their avatars to have their sex, but to create avatars with gend...

The knowledge of opinion leaders (in their area of interest) to a certain extent has always been taken for granted by communication scholars. This article investigates what opinion leaders really know. Two studies will be presented to answer the above question. Participants (N = 119) of the first study were assessed according to ratings on three sc...

Based on the model of complex entertainment experiences ( Vorderer, Klimmt, & Ritterfeld, 2004 ), the competitiveness of a computer game (media prerequisite) and the individual life satisfaction (user prerequisite) are hypothesized to influence game enjoyment. Avatar-player similarity was hypothesized to determine identification with the avatar, wh...

Jenseits von Internet-Radio und Web-TV, die ähnlich erlebt werden wie die Unterhaltungsangebote in den klassischen Medien, gibt es im Internet höchst partizipative und interaktive Angebote. Unterhaltung online ist ein ‚Spezialfall’ der Unterhaltungsforschung. User – so zeigen die Studien der letzten zehn Jahre – unterhalten sich online anders als m...

Über 600.000 Deutsche nahmen am SPIEGEL-Wissenstest "Studenten-Pisa" bei SPIEGEL ONLINE und studiVZ teil, um ihr Allgemeinwissen in den Fachgebieten Politik, Geschichte, Wirtschaft, Naturwissenschaften und Kultur zu testen. Die in der Presse berichteten Ergebnisse sorgten für Überraschung und Bestürzung: Jüngere schnitten deutlich schlechter ab als...

Das Studentenpisa 2009 war der wohl größte Wissenstest, den es je gegeben hat. Die Aktion des SPIEGEL in Kooperation mit studiVZ zählte fast 700.000 Teilnehmer. Der Beitrag stellt wesentliche Schritte von der Idee bis zur Validierung des Studentenpisa-Tests vor. Er beschreibt zunächst, warum die SPIEGEL-Redaktion überhaupt einen solchen Wissenstest...

Medien sind in unserem Alltag allgegenwärtig. Dreieinhalb Stunden sehen die Deutschen täglich fern, zwei Stunden surfen sie im Internet, drei Stunden hören sie (nebenbei) Radio und 30 Minuten lesen sie die Zeitung (vgl. im Überblick Oehmichen & Schröter, 2008). So ist geradezu die gesamte Wachzeit von Mediennutzung bestimmt oder begleitet. Medienin...

Who do people want to be in virtual worlds? Video game players can create their avatars with characteristics similar to themselves, create a superhero that is predominantly designed to win, or chose an in-between strategy. In a quasi-experimental study, players’ strategies of avatar choice were investigated. Participants created an avatar they woul...

„Nichts ist so praktisch wie eine gute Theorie.“ Dieses Zitat von Kurt Lewin wird gern verwendet, um der oft unfruchtbaren Diskussion über die Kluft zwischen Theorie und Praxis den Boden zu entziehen. Das mag gut klingen. Inwieweit aber ist diese Aussage mehr als eine Schutzbehauptung seitens der akademischen Forschung angesichts des Vorwurfs, abge...