I Downloaded What?: An Examination of Computer Security Decisions
Jefferson B. Hardee, Christopher B. Mayhorn, Ryan W. West · Proceedings of the Human Factors and Ergonomics Society Annual Meeting · 2006
Computer users are faced with seemingly minor security decisions on a daily basis. While much is known about decision-making in general, less is known about decision-making in the context of computer security. In the current experiment, 56 relatively knowledgeable computer users completed a decision-making task that included 24 scenarios which varied in terms of decision domain (computer vs. non-computer), risk (high vs. low), and gain-to-loss ratio (high gains/low losses, equal gains/losses, low gains/high losses). Results indicated that there was no difference between computer and non-computer decisions when risk and gain-to-loss ratio were held constant. However, these decision factors did interact to differentially influence decisions within each of these domains. Perception of risk greatly impacted computer decisions whereas the gain-to-loss ratio seemed to have a larger influence on the non-computer decisions. Potential directions for computer security software design, user training, and future research are discussed.