Supportive Fintech for Individuals with Bipolar Disorder: Determinants of Financial Data Sharing Behavior
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Financial stability is a key challenge for individuals with bipolar disorder, a serious mental illness requiring life-long management. Symptomatic periods often lead to poor financial decision-making, including compulsive spending and risky behaviors. Financial technologies ("fintech") may be used to design novel interfaces to support financial stability across the course of this illness. However, little is known about the unique perspectives, expectations, or privacy preferences related to financial data sharing for these purposes. To this end, we deployed an online survey (N=480) to assess the privacy expectations of individuals with bipolar disorder surrounding the use of financial data as an early-warning indicator of symptoms. A factorial vignette design allowed us to vary vignette dimensions across the granularity of financial data types, context of potential data use, and recipient of data insights. We analyze demographic differences in level of comfort when sharing financial data in the context of this illness, primarily finding that individuals were most comfortable sharing financial data when they were the recipient of resulting insights or notifications. Individuals who were most willing to engage creditors or other financial technologies to impede overspending were significantly more willing to share with family members and clinicians.
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