Internet Opt-In and Opt-Out: Investigating the Roles of Frames, Defaults and Privacy Concerns
| Claim | In soliciting consumers’ participation in online activities, the opt-out format produces a higher level of participation than the opt-in format—most especially, when the format is positively framed |
| Reason | This is because of the attractiveness of the default option whereby, ether due to cognitve laziness or otherwise, people tend to choose the default option. As such, more people participate when the default is to participate than when it is to not participate. Also, positively framing the options tend to mediate the default effects by increasing the level of participation |
| Warrant | The default option in the opt-out approach takes the user as having accepted to participate whereas in the opt-in approach the default option means that the user has elected not to participate People will be more inclined towards considering the positive aspects when faced with positively framed options and vice versa |
| Evidence | The results of Experiment 1 show that the most effective option in attracting participation is when the opt-out is couched with positive (choice) framing. On the other hand, the lowest level of participation was recorded with the opt-in option that has a negative (rejection) framing. |
| Importance | · Contributes to the debate on the use of opt-in and opt-out mechanisms in collecting customer information · Provides a perspective towards the design and configuration of web sites that are used to gather customer information |
| Moderating Effects | · People with strong privacy concerns are less likely to be swayed by the choice of opting mechanisms since they are more prone to check out the privacy issues before making their choice (Experiment 2) |