Privacy Apathy: The Cultural and Affective Construction of Relational Legal Consciousness in the U.S. and Germany

This dissertation examines how individuals interpret and respond to everyday data privacy encroachments, arguing that privacy is not only a legal or technical concern but also a deeply cultural and emotional one. Drawing on the frameworks of relational legal consciousness and contextual integrity, I explore how people’s attitudes and behaviors are shaped by their social positions, taken-for-granted cultural beliefs, and affective responses—especially feelings of apathy. Specifically, I focus on how these factors either influence or are associated with the process through which people draw on their beliefs about the law to make sense of everyday privacy encroachments, i.e., their legal consciousness of data privacy.

The project comprises three empirical articles, each based on original factorial survey experiments conducted in the United States and Germany (N = 600 and 602). Across these studies, I manipulate both the actor responsible for the privacy encroachment (government vs. corporate) and the motive behind it (self-interest vs. social benefit). I draw on quantitative data to assess participants’ perceived acceptability of these privacy encroachments, and their willingness to engage in protective behaviors. I also draw on qualitative data to understand the meanings they assign to these encroachments.

Findings reveal that individuals evaluate privacy encroachments differently depending on the type of actor and their presumed motive, with state-led initiatives framed as socially beneficial often seen as most acceptable whereas corporate encroachments for profit are seen as least acceptable. Furthermore, I find that marginalized groups in the U.S. express greater trust in state-driven efforts for social good, whereas they draw on distinct legal logics grounded in lived experiences to demonstrate the unacceptability of government encroachments for self-interest. Lastly, the cross-national analyses show that while apathy is a strong predictor of perceived acceptability in both countries, its effects on privacy attitudes are culturally contingent.

By centering emotion and culture, this dissertation contributes to the theory of relational legal consciousness and extends contextual integrity to account for the emotional resonance of privacy norms. The findings underscore the need for privacy governance frameworks that address emotional disengagement and are responsive to the cultural contexts in which data practices unfold.