Blurring Safety Between Online and Offline Worlds
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Blurring Safety Between Online and Offline Worlds: Archival, Correlational, and Experimental Evidence of Generalized Threat in the Digital Age by Jessica E. Bodford A Dissertation Presented in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree Doctor of Philosophy Approved April 2017 by the Graduate Supervisory Committee: Virginia S. Y. Kwan, Chair Bradley Adame Douglas Kenrick Paulo Shakarian ARIZONA STATE UNIVERSITY May 2017 ABSTRACT Decades of research in cyberpsychology and human-computer interaction has pointed to a strong distinction between the online and offline worlds, suggesting that attitudes and behaviors in one domain do not necessarily generalize to the other. However, as humans spend increasing amounts of time in the digital world, psychological understandings of safety may begin to influence human perceptions of threat while online. This dissertation therefore examines whether perceived threat generalizes between domains across archival, correlational, and experimental research methods. Four studies offer insight into the relationship between objective indicators of physical and online safety on the levels of nation and state; the relationship between perceptions of these forms of safety on the individual level; and whether experimental manipulations of one form of threat influence perceptions of threat in the opposite domain. In addition, this work explores the impact of threat perception-related personal and situational factors, as well as the impact of threat type (i.e., self-protection, resource), on this hypothesized relationship. Collectively, these studies evince a positive relationship between physical and online safety in macro-level actuality and individual-level perception. Among individuals, objective indicators of community safety—as measured by zip code crime data—were a positive reflection of perceptions of physical safety; these perceptions, in turn, mapped onto perceived online safety. The generalization between perceived physical threat and online threat was stronger after being exposed to self-protection threat manipulations, possibly underscoring the more dire nature of threats to bodily safety than those to valuable resources. Most notably, experimental findings suggest that it is not the i physical that informs the digital, but rather the opposite: Online threats blur more readily into physical domains, possibly speaking to the concern that dangers specific to the digital world will bleed into the physical one. This generalization of threat may function as a strategy to prepare oneself for future dangers wherever they might appear; and indeed, perceived threat in either world positively influenced desires to act on recommended safety practices. Taken together, this research suggests that in the realm of threat perception, the boundaries between physical and digital are less rigid than may have been previously believed. ii To Virginia, who gave me a chance when cyberpsychology was still in its infancy; and to my favorite beard and co-pilot, for harboring an identical optimism that this digitally connected world will solve more problems than it creates. iii ACKNOWLEDGMENTS I gratefully acknowledge the National Science Foundation for funding early iterations of this research through the Graduate Research Fellowship Program (Grant No. 12-061). I would also like to express my sincerest gratitude to Facebook, Inc. for funding this dissertation, for approaching this area of work with enthusiasm, and for teaching me to never mistake motion for progress. iv TABLE OF CONTENTS Page LIST OF TABLES ................................................................................................................ vii LIST OF FIGURES ................................................................................................................. x INTRODUCTION ................................................................................................................... 1 Overview of the Present Research ............................................................................... 2 Physical and Online Safety ........................................................................................... 3 Person- and Situation-Specific Factors ........................................................................ 9 Research Questions and Hypotheses .......................................................................... 15 Theoretical Contributions ........................................................................................... 24 STUDY 1...... ......................................................................................................................... 26 Method ........................................................................................................................ 26 Results and Discussion ............................................................................................... 29 STUDY 2..... .......................................................................................................................... 30 Method ........................................................................................................................ 30 Results and Discussion ............................................................................................... 32 STUDY 3..... .......................................................................................................................... 33 Method ........................................................................................................................ 33 Results and Discussion ............................................................................................... 38 STUDY 4..... .......................................................................................................................... 44 Method ........................................................................................................................ 45 Results and Discussion ............................................................................................... 53 v Page GENERAL DISCUSSION ................................................................................................... 81 Summary of Findings ................................................................................................. 81 Limitations and Future Directions .............................................................................. 88 Contributions and Implications .................................................................................. 92 REFERENCES ...................................................................................................................... 98 APPENDIX A STUDY 3 MATERIALS ...................................................................................... 107 B STUDY 3 IRB APPROVAL ................................................................................. 112 C STUDY 4 MATERIALS ....................................................................................... 114 D STUDY 4 IRB APPROVAL ................................................................................ 133 E ADDITIONAL TABLES ...................................................................................... 135 vi LIST OF TABLES Table Page 1. Summary of All Studies: Design, Variables, Hypotheses ......................................... 24 2. Study 1: Partial Correlations of Country Demographics and Online Safety ............. 28 3. Study 1: Bivariate and Partial (Controlling for GDP) Correlations .......................... 30 4. Study 2: Bivariate Correlations of Variables of Interest ............................................ 32 5. Study 2: Partial Correlations (Controlling for GSP) .................................................. 32 6. Study 3: Frequencies of Physical and Online Victimization ..................................... 37 7. Study 3: Descriptive Statistics for Variables of Interest ............................................ 38 8. Study 3: Correlation Matrix of Variables of Interest ................................................. 39 9. Study 4: Survey Flow ................................................................................................. 48 10. Study 4: Descriptive Statistics for Safety Practice Consumption .............................. 51 11. Study 4: Descriptive Statistics for All Variables of Interest ...................................... 53 12. Study 4: Descriptive Statistics for All Variables, Physical Self-Protection Threat 136 13. Study 4: Descriptive Statistics for All Variables, Physical Resource Threat .......... 136 14. Study 4: Descriptive Statistics for All Variables, Physical Control ........................ 137 15. Study 4: Descriptive Statistics for All Variables, Online Self-Protection Threat ... 137 16. Study 4: Descriptive Statistics for All Variables, Online Resource Threat ............ 138 17. Study 4: Descriptive Statistics for All Variables, Online Control ........................... 138 18. Study 4: Correlations of Dependent Variables of Interest ......................................... 54 19. Study 4: Correlations of Person- and Situation-Specific Factors .............................. 54 20. Study 4: Correlations of Dependent and Exploratory Variables ............................... 54 21. Study 4: Correlations of Dependent Variables, Physical Self-Protection Threat .... 139 vii Table Page 22. Study 4: Correlations of Exploratory Factors, Physical Self-Protection Threat ..... 139 23. Study 4: Correlations