Previously submitted to: JMIR Mental Health (no longer under consideration since Feb 03, 2026)
Date Submitted: Jan 31, 2026
Open Peer Review Period: Feb 3, 2026 - Feb 3, 2026
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How Privacy Fatigue and User Traits Shape the Privacy Paradox in Mobile Social Media: An Experimental Investigation
ABSTRACT
Background:
The "privacy paradox"—where users express high privacy concerns yet fail to engage in protective behaviors—is well-documented in mobile social media (MSM). Recent theoretical advances suggest that privacy fatigue (emotional exhaustion and cynicism resulting from privacy management) may explain this inconsistency. However, the extent to which privacy fatigue moderates the concern-behavior relationship, and whether this mechanism varies across different user populations, remains empirically underexplored.
Objective:
This study aims to examine privacy fatigue as an emotional mechanism underlying the privacy paradox and to investigate how demographic and usage characteristics create heterogeneous vulnerability to this fatigue effect in MSM contexts.
Methods:
A cross-sectional survey was conducted with 1,734 Chinese WeChat users. We employed Method of Moment Quantile Regression (MMQR) to analyze the moderating role of privacy fatigue on the relationship between privacy concern and protection behavior willingness across different quantiles of the willingness distribution (0.25, 0.5, 0.75, 0.9). Heterogeneity analyses were performed across gender, education level, and usage frequency subgroups.
Results:
Privacy fatigue exhibited a significant negative moderating effect on the privacy concern–protection behavior relationship (coefficient = −0.0127, P<.001), indicating that fatigue weakens the translation of concern into action. This moderating effect was strongest at lower quantiles of protection willingness (Qtile 0.25: β=−0.0146) and diminished at higher quantiles (Qtile 0.9: β=−0.0089). Heterogeneity analyses revealed that females and users with lower education levels showed greater sensitivity to privacy concerns, while long-term, high-frequency users demonstrated heightened vulnerability to privacy fatigue effects.
Conclusions:
Privacy fatigue functions as a critical emotional barrier that helps explain the privacy paradox in MSM. The findings suggest that "one-size-fits-all" privacy interventions are insufficient; instead, platform designers and policymakers must develop fatigue-aware, user-segmented privacy interfaces that account for demographic and behavioral heterogeneity to promote sustainable digital privacy practices. Future longitudinal research should track the dynamic evolution of privacy fatigue over time to inform adaptive intervention strategies.
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