For they know not what they do? Target memory and metacognitive monitoring of self-disclosures on social networking sites

Abstract To adequately weigh the risks and benefits of self-disclosures on Social Networking Sites (SNS), it is pivotal for users to be aware of the current status of their digital privacy. Cognitive and metacognitive factors seem necessary in this context, for example target memory about who exactly has access to exactly which pieces of information and metacognitive monitoring of the status of one’s own target memory. Transferring paradigms from basic memory and metacognition research, we systematically investigated the impact of risk cues on these variables: In Experiment 1 ninety-eight young SNS users repeatedly disclosed personal or impersonal information (between-subject: information intimacy) to large or small audiences (within-subject: audience size). Afterwards their target memory was assessed and they gave metacognitive confidence judgments regarding each answer. Results indicate that participants remembered well if they had disclosed something but struggled with target memory (correct association between content and specific audience), an effect that was mirrored regarding metacognitive monitoring. Importantly participants’ target memory was significantly better under conditions of risk (personal information, large audience), but they were not metacognitively aware of these risk effects. Experiment 2 (N = 59) replicated the audience size effects and confirmed that these were not artifacts of visual salience.