A neural model of private information disclosure decisions

Private information disclosure (PID) online is prevalent and important. Current views typically suggest that PID is guided by (1) the positive value people assign to the sharing behavior through privacy-calculus (considering the risks vs benefits of sharing), and (2) normative pressures (considering what others oppose and/or typically do). Nevertheless, the neural mechanisms of such processes are largely unknown. Based on brain-behavior theories as supported by brain stimulation studies, we expected the privacy calculus mechanism to be mediated by the left (L) dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (DLPFC) and the normative pressure processing mechanism to be mediated by the right (R) DLPFC. We test this model and the proposed brain-behavior link in two experiments in which we downregulated the excitability of the target brain regions with cathodal high-definition transcranial direct current stimulation (HD-tDCS). Results suggest that the proposed dual-mechanism brain-behavior model focusing on the bilateral DLPFC can reasonably explain PID decisions.