Search Results (117)

This study examines how Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) reporting is communicated and perceived on YouTube. A dataset of 553 relevant videos and 5060 user comments was extracted on 2 April 2025 ranging between 2014 and 2025, and sentiment, topic, and stance analyses were applied to both transcripts and comments. The majority of video content strongly endorsed ESG reporting, emphasizing themes such as transparency, regulatory compliance, and financial performance. In contrast, viewer comments revealed diverse stances, including skepticism about methodological inconsistencies, accusations of greenwashing, and concerns over politicization. Notably, statistical analysis showed minimal correlation between video sentiment and audience sentiment, suggesting that user perceptions are shaped by factors beyond the tone of the videos themselves. These findings underscore the need for more rigorous ESG frameworks, enhanced standardization, and proactive stakeholder engagement strategies. The study highlights the value of online platforms for capturing stakeholder feedback in real time, offering practical insights for organizations and policymakers seeking to strengthen ESG disclosure and communication. Full article

Online reviews increasingly shape experiential travel decisions. This study investigates how structural and linguistic features of user-generated content influence peer endorsement in wine tourism. While prior research has explored review valence and credibility, limited attention has been paid to how micro-level textual and identity cues affect social approval metrics such as likes. Grounded in the Elaboration Likelihood Model, the analysis draws on 7942 TripAdvisor reviews using automated web scraping, readability metrics, and multivariate regression. Results indicate that location disclosure significantly increases likes, while higher textual complexity reduces endorsement. Title length and reviewer contributions function as peripheral cues, with an interaction between complexity and title length compounding cognitive effort. Findings refine dual-process persuasion theory and offer practical insights for content optimization in post-pandemic tourism engagement. Full article

In reality, some influencers who publicly share failures can gain more attention, which defies common sense. Existing research primarily focuses on the depth of self-disclosure by influencers, which fails to explain the current phenomena. Here, we focus on negative self-disclosure and explore whether an influencer’s proactive disclosure of failures can enhance purchase intentions, along with the underlying mechanisms and boundary conditions of this strategy. We conducted three online experiments on the Credamo platform. Study 1 (N = 94) explored the main and mediating effect, whereas Study 2 (N = 238) and Study 3 (N = 238) investigated the moderating effects of observer and influencer characteristics, respectively. The following conclusions are drawn: (1) Influencers’ proactive disclosures of failures can boost purchase intentions when recommending products; (2) perceived authenticity plays a mediating role in this process; (3) the degree of viewers’ self-discrepancy moderates the mediating effect of perceived authenticity; and (4) influencers’ follower scale moderates the impact on purchase intentions. This study offers practical implications for influencers on how to enhance marketing effectiveness through self-disclosure. Full article

Online travel agencies (OTAs) function as e-commerce platforms that facilitate transactions between accommodation providers and consumers, enabling users to efficiently search for, compare, and book travel and lodging services. As the number of OTAs continues to grow, delivering superior service quality has become essential for increasing customer repurchase intentions. Despite its significance, existing research has primarily focused on factors such as website quality, pricing strategies, brand image, and perceived value as determinants of repurchase intention. However, relatively little attention has been paid to the alignment between online information disclosure and customers’ actual offline experiences. To address this gap, the present study introduces the concept of the information disclosure gap and examines its effects on search cost, customer satisfaction, and trust, as well as the subsequent influence of these variables on repurchase intention. A questionnaire-based survey method was conducted with individuals in Taiwan who had prior experience using OTAs, yielding 365 valid responses. This study offers practical insights and recommendations for both OTAs and accommodation providers aimed at reducing the information disclosure gap and strengthening customer repurchase intention. Full article

Digital food-ordering apps make it simple to buy indulgent drinks yet hard to judge their health risks. We conducted five online experiments (N = 1048) to compare two messages for sugary beverages: self-promotion that stresses taste and self-disclosure that plainly warns “high sugar/high calories”. Brands that chose self-disclosure were seen as more socially responsible and transparent, which in turn raised trust and lifted purchase intent. These gains were strongest for users who care deeply about the category or the brand and remained robust even among highly health-conscious shoppers. The results show that, for “vice” foods, honest warnings can outperform glossy claims. Our study extends signaling and attribution theories to digital food markets and offers managers a straightforward playbook for complying with new labeling rules while still driving sales. Full article

Grounded in social penetration theory and social capital theory, this study aims to investigate how social media self-disclosure influences bridging and bonding online social capital, and how these in turn affect users’ loneliness and online interpersonal trust. A moderated mediation model was proposed and tested using cross-sectional survey data collected from 1519 Chinese netizens. Regression analyses revealed that self-disclosure on social media positively predicted both types of online social capital. Bridging social capital mediated the relationship between self-disclosure and reduced loneliness, while bonding social capital mediated the link between self-disclosure and enhanced online interpersonal trust. Moreover, agreeableness moderated the effect of self-disclosure on bonding social capital. These findings enrich the theoretical understanding of online self-disclosure and reveal the underlying motivations for users to disclose personal information on social media, even in the context of the privacy paradox. Full article

Background: This study investigates the relationship between urinary incontinence (UI) and women’s participation in physical activity (PA). Women are less active than men across their lifespan, and while interventions aim to bridge this gap, the unique challenge posed by UI remains underexplored. UI disproportionately affects women and often results in reduced self-confidence and avoidance of PA. Methods: Employing a mixed-methods design, the study utilised an online survey (n = 345) and semi-structured interviews (n = 14) to explore women’s experiences of UI during PA and its perceived impact relative to other barriers. Results: Findings reveal that UI ranks prominently among barriers to PA, yet disclosure is infrequent without direct prompting. Participants highlighted anxiety, embarrassment, and the inadequacy of PA environments in accommodating UI-related needs as critical deterrents. Interviews further uncovered a lack of practitioner knowledge regarding UI, with many women favouring privacy-centric approaches to address their concerns. Conclusions: The study underscores the necessity for tailored interventions, practitioner education, and inclusive PA environments to enhance participation and mitigate UI’s impact. These findings contribute to broader efforts to promote gender equity in PA and improve women’s health outcomes. Full article

In online medical consultations, patients convey their medical condition through self-disclosure, and the linguistic features of this disclosure, as signals, may significantly impact doctors’ diagnostic behavior and service quality. Based on signaling theory, this paper collects consultation data from a large online medical platform in China, employs text mining and classification techniques to extract relevant variables, and applies econometric models to empirically examine the effect of patients’ self-disclosure linguistic features on the quality of online medical services. The results indicate that the completeness and readability of patients’ self-disclosure have a significant positive impact on the quality of doctors’ services, while the expertise and positive sentiment of the disclosure have a significant negative effect. From the perspective of signaling theory, this study reveals the mechanism through which patients’ self-disclosure linguistic features influence doctors’ online consultation behavior, providing an important theoretical foundation for promoting online doctor–patient interaction and enhancing patient well-being. Full article

Background: Suicide is estimated to be the fourth leading cause of death globally, with those working in male-dominated industries such as mining and construction at higher risk than the general population. Research suggests this is due (in part) to stigma towards mental health. No research exists that has sought to understand the attitudes underpinning this stigma in the fly-in/fly-out (FIFO) industry. The current study, set in Australia, is the first of its kind to examine what specific stigmatised attitudes of FIFO workers exist towards suicide, help-seeking, and help-offering. Methods: Using convenience sampling, FIFO workers (n = 138) completed an online self-report survey. General thematic analysis identified four major themes. Most salient was that fear of negative consequences for employment was a primary barrier to help-seeking and help-offering. Participants also expressed lack of trust in leadership and workplace mental health culture, lack of knowledge and confidence in responding to suicidality disclosure, and fear of negative reactions as barriers to help-seeking and help-offering behaviours. Conclusions: These findings present new and valuable insights into why FIFO workers are reluctant to seek or offer help for suicidality and have important implications for addressing systematic inadequacies within the sector that hinder disclosure of suicidal ideation and access to vital services. Full article

Genetically modified (GM) foods have existed for decades, and governments internationally have legislated packaging disclosure statement language that typically incorporates the words genetic, modified, and organism. In 2018, the United States implemented the National Bioengineered Food Disclosure Standard (NBFDS) and introduced the term Bioengineered (BE) into GM disclosure language to help clarify consumer uncertainty regarding GM foods. Since then, the US consumer attitudes, perceptions, and knowledge of genetically modified foods remain negative, reflecting a contaminated interaction. Current mandated disclosure labels, utilizing engineering and science-based signifiers, are associated with this negative interaction. This research assesses whether food disclosure labels based on the signifier Design, unassociated with current contaminations, can positively impact the consumer perception of GM foods compared to the negatively contaminated science and engineering signifiers currently used. Two online studies of 1931 participants analyzed GM/BE food disclosure labels comparing four existing and six newly created engineering and science-based signifiers against four new design-based signifiers across fifteen attributes, including Price, Purchase Likelihood, Environmental Impact, Fair Trade, Safety, Nutrition, Healthfulness, Quality, Eating Experience, Comforting, Inviting, Frightening, Understandable, Ethical, and Sustainable. Across both studies, design-related labels consistently outperformed traditional engineering/science-based terms in fostering positive perceptions. However, even the best-performing labels did not fully overcome the entrenched skepticism associated with GM foods, underscoring the need for complementary strategies beyond linguistic changes. Full article

In digital societies, users’ privacy decisions not only affect personal information security and application sustainability, but also profoundly influence the formulation and enforcement of relevant laws. However, existing research mainly adopts a dichotomous perspective of rationality and bounded rationality, lacking an integrated framework to explain the complexity of users’ privacy decisions. Therefore, this study integrates privacy calculus theory and Psychological Distance Theory within the Elaboration Likelihood Model (ELM) framework to explore their mediating and moderating roles in the relationship between perceived privacy relevance and disclosure intention. To achieve the research objectives, we employed the vignette method to design an online survey with a 2 (perceived relevance: low vs. high) × 2 (temporal distance: near vs. distant) between-subjects design, ultimately collecting 293 valid responses. The conclusions are as follows: (1) perceived relevance positively affects users’ privacy disclosure intention, and perceived benefits and perceived risks play a partial mediating role between them; (2) contrary to individuals’ common preference for near temporal distance (immediate rewards), distant temporal distance (delayed rewards) have a more pronounced enhancing effect on the positive relationship between perceived relevance and perceived benefits; (3) the results excluded the influence of control variables such as gender, age, and education level on privacy disclosure intention. This study not only proposes an integrated analytical framework, revealing that users’ privacy decisions are jointly influenced by both rational and irrational factors, but also provides practical insights for application developers and regulatory agencies. Finally, we also discuss the limitations of this study and directions for future research. Full article

This research explores the psychological transition that occurs in dating app users from the Fear of Missing Out (FOMO) to the Joy of Missing Out (JOMO) using the Stressor–Strain–Outcome (SSO) model. An online survey of 410 Tinder users reveals that the FOMO significantly influences self-disclosure and social media stalking behaviors, which leads to user fatigue and eventually the JOMO. This survey also finds that privacy concerns play a moderating role in this process. In particular, the results show that a heightened FOMO increases self-disclosure and social media stalking, which intensifies fatigue and fosters the JOMO. Privacy concerns significantly modulate the relationship between the FOMO, fatigue, and the JOMO, thus playing a critical role in user interactions with dating apps. These insights help elucidate the socio-psychological behaviors of dating app users and can inform app design to reduce fatigue and enhance user well-being. Full article

People are increasingly turning to online settings to disclose very personal experiences, such as unwanted sexual encounters. Whilst the barriers to disclosure of such experiences and the positive effects of disclosure are well documented, little is known about the online disclosure experiences of survivors and victims of sexual violence, and no research has assessed differences between online and offline disclosures. This study assessed experiences of online and offline disclosures (N = 369; 86.4% female), focusing on people’s reasons for (non-)disclosure, the severity of people’s unwanted sexual experiences, the reactions they received to their disclosures, and how they felt about the disclosure. The results indicated differences between online and offline disclosures, with offline disclosures more strongly associated with negative responses than online disclosures. Moreover, people felt more positively about an online disclosure than they did about an offline disclosure. The interplay between these various factors and how people felt about their disclosure showed a different pattern across online and offline contexts. Implications and directions for future research are discussed. Full article

Reputation evaluation systems are vital for online platforms, helping users make informed choices based on the trustworthiness of products, services, or individuals. Ensuring privacy and trust in these systems is critical to allow users to provide feedback without fear of retribution or identity exposure. The ring signature (RS), enabling anonymous group-based signing, has garnered attention for building secure and private reputation systems. However, RS-based systems face significant challenges, including the inability to identify malicious users who repeatedly sign the same message, the lack of mechanisms to reveal identities involved in unlawful activities, and a linear growth in signature size with the number of ring members, which poses storage challenges for certain applications. Addressing these limitations, we propose a compressed revocable one-time ring signature (CRORS) scheme leveraging compressible proofs under the Diffie–Hellman Decision and Discrete Logarithm assumptions in the random oracle model. CRORS ensures anonymity, unforgeability, one-time linkability, non-slanderability, and revocability. The one-time linkability feature prevents double-signing, while revocability enables identity disclosure for regulatory enforcement. Additionally, the signature size is reduced to $\mathcal{O}(logn)$, significantly enhancing storage efficiency. These improvements make CRORS particularly suitable for blockchain-based reputation systems with ever-growing storage demands. Theoretical analysis validates its effectiveness and practicality. Full article

Background and Objectives: Collision-sport athletes, such as rugby players, are at risk of sport-related concussion (SRC). Women are known to be at higher risk of SRC and may experience more severe and chronic symptomology than men. Knowledge of the factors that affect a player’s disclosure of their concussive symptoms could help to inform strategies to improve compliance with reporting and management of head injuries. The aim of this study was to investigate the factors that may impact women rugby players’ disclosure of a concussion. Methods: Twenty-eight adult (≥18 years of age) elite and semi-elite women rugby players from the UK and Ireland (n = 17) and the United States (n = 11) were interviewed on their playing background and SRC experience in women’s rugby via one-on-one interviews (UK and Ireland) or an online questionnaire (US). Results: SRC data were analysed inductively using a thematic analysis approach to determine the potential reasons for SRC non-disclosure in women’s rugby. Four main themes were identified which may influence a player’s SRC non-disclosure: 1. women rugby players are self-managing SRC; 2. work-related concerns impact on SRC disclosure; 3. players and support staff lack knowledge on SRC management; and 4. poor internal and external communication affect the support players receive when injured. Conclusions: The findings were consistent across players from different countries. This research highlighted several factors that may impact on women rugby players’ disclosure of SRC regardless of country of origin (UK, Ireland, or US) and access to concussion care. Coaches and management teams should be aware of these reasons, which may enhance how they discuss and manage concussion. There is a clear need for further education on concussion for players and support staff and for strategies to create environments where women can openly discuss their concussion concerns. Full article