Aggressiveness in privacy-seeking behavior

Abstract

Almost everyone experiences the desire for privacy occasionally. Achieving privacy, on the other hand, can be more difficult, especially when relational concerns are present. While the topic of privacy has received a good deal of attention in a variety of fields (e.g., communication, law, psychology, architecture, sociology), the impact of the act of seeking privacy has received little study. Privacy-seeking is often considered a selfish act, one that is likely to make the seeker feel guilty and the other affected parties rejected. The purpose of the present study is to examine the aggressiveness of various strategies that people use to gain privacy. In the present study, privacy-seekers described how they tried to achieve privacy in a particular situation, the reasons and motivations behind their actions, their perceptions of the situation and their own behavior, and the consequences of their actions. Results indicated that the use of moderate aggressiveness may be a superior strategy for achieving privacy with relational sensitivity, in comparison to aggressive or nonaggressive strategies. Aggressive strategies were seen as more dominant, less pleasant and less composed, and resulted in more negative relational consequences, than moderately aggressive strategies, while nonaggressive strategies were seen as less dominant, equally pleasant and composed, but less satisfying to use than moderately aggressive strategies. The relationship of the intruder (friend or stranger) also played a role in how participants sought privacy. However, no setting effects were found for perceptions of the environment or type of territory and use of aggressiveness.