Behavioral Drivers of Digital Participation: Security Trust, Outcome Efficacy, and Procedural Cues in South Korea

Digital participation depends not only on the formal availability of online engagement channels but also on how citizens interpret the safety, usefulness, and feasibility of participation. This article examines whether willingness to engage digitally is shaped more strongly by procedural platform cues or by underlying behavioral beliefs about security, efficacy, and personal capability. Using a survey of 500 adults in South Korea and a 2 × 2 survey-embedded vignette experiment, the study varies participation threshold (50 vs. 500 supporters) and response specificity (generic response vs. concrete action plan and timeline). The direct experimental effects are small and statistically non-significant, indicating no detectable moderate shift in stated willingness within this vignette design. In contrast, baseline participation intention, perceived outcome efficacy, and digital ability are consistently associated with scenario-based willingness to participate, while security trust is positively associated with baseline readiness to engage. The findings suggest that digital participation is better understood as a behavioral decision shaped by perceived risk, expected consequences, and self-assessed capability than as a simple response to procedural design alone.