Can We Nudge Users Toward Better Password Management?
Shipi Kankane, Carlina DiRusso, Christen Buckley · 2018
Nudge theory has been widely used in government and health interventions for the subtlety with which it positively influences choices. But, can this gentle nudge influence users to exhibit secure online account behaviors? And further, which of the nudge types is most effective? We conducted a between-subjects experiment with five conditions, plus a control, in which participants (n = 263) experienced different types of nudges (incentives, norms, default, salience, ego) before indicating their comfort levels with an auto-generated password and intentions to create a new password. Results show the salience nudge most effectively reduced one's comfort level with keeping the auto-generated password. These preliminary findings imply nudges using multiple psychological effects could serve as important design cues, thereby making intended behaviors easy to perform.