Social media users trust in their most frequently used social media site

Abstract

As users increasingly turn to social media as a source for news and other information, greater understanding is needed about the factors that affect their perceptions of the social media sites, where they seek information. The purpose of this paper is to examine the effect of perceived social media benefits and knowledge of privacy-protection practices on users’ trust in information on social media. Results indicate that users’ trust is, in part, a function of their perceptions of the benefits of social media and their knowledge of privacy-protection practices. Perceived benefits and knowledge of privacy practices each positively influenced trust. In addition, privacy invasion experiences positively influenced risk aversion and privacy concerns, which in turn had positive influences on privacy-protection knowledge. Interestingly, this result shows that users’ privacy concerns and risk aversion have a positive effect on trust, indirectly, through users’ efforts to gain greater control of their privacy by increasing their knowledge about privacy protection practices.