Date of Award
2015
Document Type
Thesis
Degree Name
Master of Arts (MA)
Department
Psychology
Committee Chair
Sandra Carpenter
Committee Member
Aurora Torres
Committee Member
Jeffrey Neuschatz
Subject(s)
Risk perception, Technology--Social aspects, Cyber intelligence (Computer security)
Abstract
Cybersecurity research has indicated that people use simple heuristics to assess online privacy risk. Online warnings typically operate by encouraging systematic risk processing. A review of the literature on risk perception suggested that negative emotional affect produced by risk descriptions can both increase systematic processing and independently increase perceived risk. A review of fear appeals in health behavior research suggested that risk communications that produce fear will be rejected if an effective behavioral response recommendation is not provided. This study investigated the (a) impact of emotional vividness in warning descriptions and (b) response information presence on disclosure of a single piece of identity information in an online context. No effect was found of consequence vividness on disclosure. Predicted relationships between affect, processing, and perceived risk were found, suggesting that the vividness manipulation was ineffective. Warnings containing a recommended response displayed significantly lower disclosure than those without response information.
Recommended Citation
Shreeves, Michael, "Risk processing, affect, and efficacy in online privacy behavior" (2015). Theses. 165.
https://louis.uah.edu/uah-theses/165