Could Password Sharing Entitle You to Monitor Your Partner's Social Media Accounts?

Social media offers a plethora of strangers cum friends whose photo shopped images seem idealistic and more appealing than one's primary partner. Due to the physical absence and lack of non-verbal cues, online communications can quickly become aggressive and emotionally intimate. Emotional intimacy between online friends is considered a betrayal in a dyadic relationship. To protect mates from external relationship threats, romantic partners may request and/or coerce their significant other for social media account passwords. In a sample of 299 adults (women = 246) between18 and 72 years ( M = 21.12, SD = 5.39), we explored the participants’ attitudes toward password sharing, their password sharing behavior with the significant other, and finally seeking social media account passwords from their significant other. We also tested if sharing one's passwords (password sharing behavior) would mediate the relationship between the participant's password sharing attitude and the significant other's account monitoring. We found that favorable password sharing attitude may predict password sharing behavior and the significant other's SNS account monitoring. Password sharing behavior also partially mediated the relationship between password sharing attitude and the significant other's account monitoring. Implications and limitations of the study are discussed.