Investigating Citizens' Acceptance of Contact Tracing Apps: Quantitative Study of the Role of Trust and Privacy.

BACKGROUND: The COVID-19 pandemic accelerated the need to understand citizen acceptance of health surveillance technologies such as contact tracing (CT) apps. Indeed, the success of these apps required widespread public acceptance and the alleviation of concerns about privacy, surveillance, and trust. OBJECTIVE: This study aims to examine the factors that foster a sense of trust and a perception of privacy in CT apps. Our study also investigates how trust and perceived privacy influence citizens' willingness to adopt, disclose personal data, and continue to use these apps. METHODS: Drawing on privacy calculus and procedural fairness theories, we developed a model of the antecedents and behavioral intentions related to trust and privacy perceptions. We used structural equation modeling to test our hypotheses on a data set collected at 2 time points (before and after the launch of a national CT app). The sample consisted of 405 Irish residents. RESULTS: Trust in CT apps was positively influenced by propensity to trust technology (ß=.074; P=.006), perceived need for surveillance (ß=.119; P<.001), and perceptions of government motives (ß=.671; P<.001) and negatively influenced by perceived invasion (ß=-.224; P<.001). Perceived privacy was positively influenced by trust (ß=.466; P<.001) and perceived control (ß=.451; P<.001) and negatively influenced by perceived invasion (ß=-.165; P<.001). Prelaunch intentions toward adoption were influenced by trust (ß=.590; P<.001) and perceived privacy (ß=.247; P<.001). Prelaunch intentions to disclose personal data to the app were also influenced by trust (ß=.215; P<.001) and perceived privacy (ß=.208; P<.001) as well as adoption intentions before the launch (ß=.550; P<.001). However, postlaunch intentions to use the app were directly influenced by prelaunch intentions (ß=.530; P<.001), but trust and perceived privacy only had an indirect influence. Finally, with regard to intentions to disclose after the launch, use intentions after the launch (ß=.665; P<.001) and trust (ß=.215; P<.001) had a direct influence, but perceived privacy only had an indirect influence. The proposed model explained 74.4% of variance in trust, 91% of variance in perceived privacy, 66.6% of variance in prelaunch adoption intentions, 45.9% of variance in postlaunch use intentions, and 83.9% and 79.4% of variance in willingness to disclose before the launch and after the launch, respectively. CONCLUSIONS: Positive perceptions of trust and privacy can be fostered through clear communication regarding the need and motives for CT apps, the level of control citizens maintain, and measures to limit invasive data practice. By engendering these positive beliefs before launch and reinforcing them after launch, citizens may be more likely to accept and use CT apps. These insights are important for the launch of future apps and technologies that require mass acceptance and information disclosure.

Influencing a nation: How a leader's interpersonal emotion regulation influences citizen compliance via trust and emotions during a global pandemic.

During crises like the COVID-19 pandemic, it was necessary for political leaders to influence citizens to comply with public health measures and restrictions. These health measures (e.g., physical distancing, staying at home) had substantial negative effects on individuals' lives and thus were sometimes met with defensive, noncooperative responses. To influence citizens' compliance with public health guidance and nationally imposed restrictions, political leaders needed to effectively motivate them through their public communications. We argue that while negative emotions may have discouraged citizens from deviating from public health restrictions, other factors such as citizens' trust in political leaders played a role as well. We investigated whether the perception of the interpersonal emotion regulation (IER) strategies used by government leaders in ministerial briefings impacted citizens' compliance intentions via either negative affect or perceived trustworthiness. Across three studies based in Western Europe (Studies 1 and 2 survey, Study 3 experimental), we consistently found that a leader's affect-improving IER strategies increased compliance intentions via perceived trustworthiness but not via negative affect. Affect-worsening IER strategies demonstrated either no effect or an indirect worsening effect on the compliance intentions of citizens. Our findings highlight the importance of IER strategies in ministerial briefings and perceived trustworthiness of political leaders in motivating citizens to comply with public health restrictions during a pandemic. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2024 APA, all rights reserved).

A Trait-State Model of Trust Propensity: Evidence From Two Career Transitions.

Trust propensity is typically conceptualized as a stable, trait-like, exogenous variable. Drawing on the social investment principle of personality change, we argue that trust propensity has situationally specific components and is likely to be less stable during periods of career transition. Using a latent curve-latent state-trait model, we present evidence that suggests that trust propensity has stable (trait) and unstable (state) components during career transition periods and that it has the potential to change over time. Our results are replicated across two, transitional workplace populations during a process of (re)socialization into an organization. In our second study, we also expand our focus to examine correlates of trust propensity and demonstrate the relationship between state and trait trust propensity and cognitive depletion. Our paper significantly extends knowledge of the nature of trust propensity and raises questions about the stability of this construct, one of the core tenets of trust theory.