Premium
Reasons For Both Pessimism And Optimism: A Response To The Commentaries
Author(s) -
Acquisti Alessandro,
Brandimarte Laura,
Loewenstein George
Publication year - 2020
Publication title -
journal of consumer psychology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 4.433
H-Index - 110
eISSN - 1532-7663
pISSN - 1057-7408
DOI - 10.1002/jcpy.1187
Subject(s) - pessimism , optimism , mulligan , psychology , economics , positive economics , social psychology , philosophy , epistemology , computer science , computer security
We had thought that our piece presented about as bleak a picture of the current privacy climate as could be imagined. These three superb commentaries, however, suggest that we may have fallen short of plumbing the depths of the current problem. Yet, if they are, possibly, even more despairing than we are about the current state of affairs, we read these commentaries as more optimistic about the prospects for an improvement of the situation. For instance, it is certainly encouraging to see some litigation outcomes going in favor of consumers, as Jagadish points out. Likewise, Mulligan, Regan, and King (MRK) propose that the very bleak current state of privacy is reinvigorating a collective interest in protection against surveillance. Even Oyserman and Schwarz can be seen as optimistic about the prospects for positive progress in the sense that they propose that public information campaigns could yield substantial benefits.