A theory of instinctive information sharing

Abstract

Recent psychology research suggests that people have an innate tendency to share information. This brings a new perspective to existing information sharing research. We elaborated a new theory with the central construct of need for information sharing. This need for information sharing is a measure of an individual's innate need to share information with others. We also developed measurement items for this construct and empirically tested it in a survey on sharing of information in forums. The measurement items show good reliability and validity. The new construct can help to explain people's intention to share information. The results support our new theory for information sharing behaviours.