The rising tide of piracy: the influence of social roles, risks and norms on illegal consumption
Joe Cox
Digital piracy, including unauthorized access to entertainment content, continues to rise, yet traditional deterrence messages often fail. Research shows that men tend to pirate more than women, but it remains unclear whether gendered social factors contribute to this disparity. Informed by Social Role Theory, we examine social deterrents to piracy by gender, focusing on perceived social risk and social norms. First, we measure illegal content consumption by gender, controlling for differences i