Doing first, thinking ... maybe later.

Just thinking about privacy makes people more cautious about sharing personal information:

A recent study by Alessandro Acquisti and colleagues at Carnegie Mellon University, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, points to why making privacy protection more conspicuous may actually deter users from sharing information.

In the paper, posted this month on the Social Science Research Network, college students were asked to complete a questionnaire about their attitude towards coursework. The team found participants were less likely to reveal wrongdoings if they were first made to think about privacy – even though that was done through an assurance of confidentiality.

This effect, called "privacy saliency", makes social networks loathe to make visible their efforts to protect privacy, says Acquisti.

via NewScientist.