Extending the “Extended Privacy Calculus model”: Relating privacy behavior and well-being in a representative sample of Vkontakte SNS users

Current Psychology. 2026. Vol. 45. Article 728.

Sinyavskaya Y., Koltsova O.

The privacy calculus model has been widely applied to examine how social networking site (SNS) users balance perceived risks and benefits in their privacy decisions. However, it remains unclear how this risk–benefit evaluation, after translating into corresponding privacy behaviors, subsequently affects users’ well-being. This study proposes an extended model in which several measures of well-being serve as outcomes of this privacy calculus process. Using a cross-sectional survey and digital trace data on privacy settings from a demographically stratified sample of Russian VKontakte SNS users (N = 895), we found that users who anticipated greater benefits from SNS use disclosed more personal information, whereas those perceiving higher privacy risks engaged in stronger protective behaviors. As expected, higher self-disclosure further translated into greater psychological well-being and perceived social capital. In contrast, although privacy concerns were positively related to protective behavior, they showed an association with only one component of well-being —perceived bonding social capital —and this link was not mediated by privacy protection. Overall, by integrating motivational and behavioral dimensions and considering both self-disclosure and protection within a single framework, this cross-sectional study demonstrates an asymmetric role of the two privacy-calculus components in shaping well-being in online contexts.

Keywords: social capital, structural equation modeling (SEM), satisfaction with life, well-being, privacy behavior, privacy calculus, social networking sites (SNS)

Publication based on the results of: Analysis of Human Interaction with Information and Improvement of Algorithms of Information Processing (2025)