Reasoning and judgements made in an online capacity. An exploration of how phishing emails influence decision making strategies.

Steve Mack. 2014

Deception has been studied extensively in the real world. Decision making strategies for detecting email-based deceptions however, is still a relatively new area of research. The present study examined how email users reacted when they received different types of phishing emails asking for information. This behavioural experiment differs from previous research by using authentic phishing emails being sent to participants’ actual email addresses, instead of asking participants to rate mock phishing emails for suspiciousness, which has been the predominant method used in previous studies. Participants N = 30, all of whom were Lancaster University Psychology undergraduates, took part in this study that wanted to explore the impact that language style and personal involvement would have upon response rates. A second variable that was manipulated was expectation, would advance warning to expect email influence decision outcomes? A new online security scale was also tested, together with an evaluation of the impact that computer familiarity may have upon the decision making process. It was found that urgency and personal involvement cues embedded within phishing emails had a significant influence on overall response rates. When participants were given advance warning to expect phishing email, response rates were lower than for when no warning was given. Implications are discussed.

questionnaire-profile from project results
online-habits questionnaire
computer-use questionnaire