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Rethinking Privacy Torts: A View Toward a Psycholegal Perspective

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Handbook of Psychology and Law

Abstract

Privacy torts (and torts in general) have been a neglected area of psycholegal research. The lack of research in this area can be partially explained by ethical and methodological constraints, which make it difficult to conduct privacy research. Most empirical studies have measured privacy as an attitude, interest, or value. Unfortunately, many of these studies do not translate easily into assessing the behavioral assumptions contained in judicial opinions and made by legal commentators. However, with a proper understanding of the legal treatment of privacy, there is great opportunity for psychologists to assess the validity of legal assumptions about privacy and inform policy makers. The purpose of this chapter is to facilitate the task of conducting psycholegal research on privacy by exploring strategies that are appropriate to conducting research on privacy torts.

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© 1992 Springer Science+Business Media New York

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Small, M.A., Wiener, R.L. (1992). Rethinking Privacy Torts: A View Toward a Psycholegal Perspective. In: Kagehiro, D.K., Laufer, W.S. (eds) Handbook of Psychology and Law. Springer, New York, NY. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4757-4038-7_22

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4757-4038-7_22

  • Publisher Name: Springer, New York, NY

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