The Effect of Attitude, Social Trust and Trust in Social Networking Sites on Two Dimensions of Sharing Behavior

Although social networking sites (SNS) are among the most important means of sharing and communication in today’s virtual world, little work has been done to explain the sharing behavior of SNS users in detail. This study tries to investigate types of sharing behavior of SNS users and to find important factors affecting their sharing behavior. In terms of the width and depth of sharing information, we distinguish two important dimensions of sharing behavior: sharing regularity and sharing density. As a width dimension of sharing behavior, sharing regularity refers to the frequency of sharing information with other SNS users and as a depth dimension of sharing behavior, sharing density deals with the degree of private information sharing with others. Using the Theory of Reasoned Action, we propose a research model of two dimensions of sharing behavior including sharing attitude, social trust, and trust in a social networking site. We find that social trust and trust in the SNS have a significant effect on SNS users’ sharing attitude, which in turn strongly influences on two dimensions of sharing behavior. The implications of the study for research and practice will be discussed with future directions.