Consumer differences in chilling effects

Companies collect and process data on consumers’ media behavior for providing them with personalized advertising. Such practices contribute to perceptions of corporate surveillance among consumers, who may respond to it by self-censorship (e.g., using less media or using media differently), so-called chilling effects. The current study investigates consumers’ change in media behavior when their data is being collected by companies for advertising purposes focusing on how chilling effects differ depending on different consumer-related factors (i.e., attitude towards personalization, privacy concerns, need for self-presentation). Two experimental studies have shown that having a positive attitude towards personalized advertising makes consumers less prone to chilling effects, while high privacy concerns overall leads to more intention to change behavior. A high need for self-presentation also triggers chilling effects in media diet, especially for certain data collection techniques.