Prosociality and endorsement of liberty: Communal and individual predictors of attitudes towards surveillance technologies

The psychological reassurance effect of mobile tracing apps in Covid-19 Era

“…If personal data are only used in a specific context, citizens will accept sharing their personal information. This is in line with the research of Matt (2021) and Wnuk et al (2021) showing the importance of prosocial behaviours and social benefits. Our research has considered both the risks and benefits of studying app adoption or intent to download the tracing app, which is in line with previous studies (e.g., Fox et al, 2021 ; Trang et al, 2020 ).…”

“…Third, our study shows that those whose friends/families have experienced COVID-19 symptoms show a greater effect of utility on perceived value and trust in the government on WOM, whereas those whose friends/families have not experienced COVID-19 symptoms are more oriented to well-being and concerned by the risks of using the StopCovid app. This is in line with studies on prosocialism ( Trang et al, 2020 ; Wnuk et al, 2021 ) and disease concerns ( Chan & Saqib, 2021 ). During a crisis, the social view predominates individual behaviours.…”

“…This means that the app has the potential to develop the psychological perception of ‘the return of normality’. In addition, in the context of the contact-tracing app, the notion of time has been explored by two longitudinal studies ( Fox et al, 2021 ; Wnuk et al, 2021 ); these studies highlight that the acceptance of an app or trust (over the time) in digital contact-tracing apps will vary based on the situation (i.e., lockdown, early period of crisis, mandated approach by governments, return to normalcy, etc.). Our results show that app perceived value positively affect trust in the future and can help people develop a form of optimism regarding when the crisis will end.…”

“…The endorsement of liberty negatively predicts attitude on contact-tracing apps Time is an important factor during the pandemic, and acceptance will differ depending on situations (the acceptance of tracing apps decreased after eight months but increased when infections and fatalities increased). Wnuk et al (2021) (on a Polish population) …”

The Adoption of Contact-Tracing Applications and the Integration of a Health Pass

“…The issues of exclusion (Pagliari, 2020) and digital divide (Beaunoyer et al, 2020), potentially inequitable restrictions between groups (Klenk & Duijf, 2021;Parker et al, 2020), and potential generalized surveillance (Zhang et al, 2020) have been put forward as collective risks. Individuals who are more sensitive to personal freedoms were also found to be less likely to use surveillance technologies (Wnuk et al, 2021). Some recent studies have found that these social considerations have a stronger influence on the privacy calculus than individual risks, especially when related to the fear of mass surveillance (Abramova et al, 2022).…”