Press accept to update now: Individual differences in susceptibility to malevolent interruptions

© 2017 The Authors Increasingly, connected communication technologies have resulted in people being exposed to fraudulent communications by scammers and hackers attempting to gain access to computer systems for malicious purposes. Common influence techniques, such as mimicking authority figures or instilling a sense of urgency, are used to persuade people to respond to malevolent messages by, for example, accepting urgent updates. An ‘accept’ response to a malevolent influence message can result in severe negative consequences for the user and for others, including the organisations they work for. This paper undertakes exploratory research to examine individual differences in susceptibility to fraudulent computer messages when they masquerade as interruptions during a demanding memory recall primary task compared to when they are presented in a post-task phase. A mixed-methods approach was adopted to examine when and why people choose to accept or decline three types of interrupting computer update message (genuine, mimicked, and low authority) and the relative impact of such interruptions on performance of a serial recall memory primary task. Results suggest that fraudulent communications are more likely to be accepted by users when they interrupt a demanding memory-based primary task, that this relationship is impacted by the content of the fraudulent message, and that influence techniques used in fraudulent communications can over-ride authenticity cues when individuals decide to accept an update message. Implications for theories, such as the recently proposed Suspicion, Cognition and Automaticity Model and the Integrated Information Processing Model of Phishing Susceptibility, are discussed

Individual differences in susceptibility to online influence: A theoretical review

© 2017 The Authors Scams and other malicious attempts to influence people are continuing to proliferate across the globe, aided by the availability of technology that makes it increasingly easy to create communications that appear to come from legitimate sources. The rise in integrated technologies and the connected nature of social communications means that online scams represent a growing issue across society, with scammers successfully persuading people to click on malicious links, make fraudulent payments, or download malicious attachments. However, current understanding of what makes people particularly susceptible to scams in online contexts, and therefore how we can effectively reduce potential vulnerabilities, is relatively poor. So why are online scams so effective? And what makes people particularly susceptible to them? This paper presents a theoretical review of literature relating to individual differences and contextual factors that may impact susceptibility to such forms of malicious influence in online contexts. A holistic approach is then proposed that provides a theoretical foundation for research in this area, focusing on the interaction between the individual, their current context, and the influence message itself, when considering likely response behaviour

The rise of consumer health wearables: promises and barriers

Will consumer wearable technology ever be adopted or accepted by the medical community? Patients and practitioners regularly use digital technology (e.g., thermometers and glucose monitors) to identify and discuss symptoms. In addition, a third of general practitioners in the United Kingdom report that patients arrive with suggestions for treatment based on online search results. However, consumer health wearables are predicted to become the next “Dr Google.” One in six (15%) consumers in the United States currently uses wearable technology, including smartwatches or fitness bands. While 19 million fitness devices are likely to be sold this year, that number is predicted to grow to 110 million in 2018. As the line between consumer health wearables and medical devices begins to blur, it is now possible for a single wearable device to monitor a range of medical risk factors. Potentially, these devices could give patients direct access to personal analytics that can contribute to their health, facilitate preventive care, and aid in the management of ongoing illness. However, how this new wearable technology might best serve medicine remains unclea

Knowing me, Knowing You: reciprocal self-disclosure and Internet-based surveys

Candid self-disclosure is desirable for many behavioral science studies. Although there is ample evidence that self-disclosure is increased when people communicate or participate in research over the Internet, few studies have looked at ways of increasing this effect. In the present pilot study, participants were randomly allocated to either a condition in which they received self-disclosing information about the experimenter (and then moved on to the study) or were directed straight to the study. Participants completed six open response questions on the Internet. Participants who received the experimenter disclosure divulged a significantly higher quantity of information about themselves, but their answers were not scored as significantly more revealing or intimate than those participants who did not receive the experimenter disclosure. Implications for conducting research over the Internet are discussed

Explanations for the perpetration of and reactions to deception in a virtual community

Cases of identity deception on the Internet are not uncommon. Several cases of a revealed identitydeception have been reported in the media. In this article, the authors examine a case of deception in anonline community composed primarily of information technology professionals. In this case, anestablished community member (DF) invented a character (Nowheremom)whom he fell in love withand who was eventually killed in a tragic accident. When other members of the community eventuallybegan to question Nowheremom's actual identity, DF admitted that he invented her. The discussionboard was flooded with reactions to DF's revelation. The authors propose several explanations for theperpetration of identity deception, including psychiatric illness, identity play, and expressions of trueself. They also analyze the reactions of community members and propose three related explanations(social identity, deviance, and norm violation) to account for their reactions. It is argued that virtualcommunities' reactions to such threatening events provide invaluable clues for the study of group processeson the Internet

Looking at, looking up or keeping up with people?: Motives and use of Facebook

This paper investigates the uses of social networking site Facebook, and the gratifications users derive from those uses. In the first study, 137 users generated words or phrases to describe how they used Facebook, and what they enjoyed about their use. These phrases were coded into 46 items which were completed by 241 Facebook users in Study 2. Factor analysis identified seven unique uses and gratifications: social connection, shared identities, content, social investigation, social network surfing and status updating. User demographics, site visit patterns and the use of privacy settings were associated with different uses and gratifications. Author Keywords Social networking sites, uses and gratifications, motivatio

Me, myself and I : The role of interactional context on self-presentation through avatars

This paper investigates whether the nature of an online environment can prime users to create avatars that emphasize particular characteristics. Participants created an avatar for one of three contrasting settings: blogging, dating or gaming. For the most part, avatars in blogging were created to accurately reflect their owners’ physical appearance, lifestyle and preferences. By contrast, participants in the dating and gaming treatments accentuated certain aspects of their avatar to reflect the tone and perceived expectations of the context. For instance, avatars in dating were made to look more attractive while avatars in gaming were made to look more intellectual. Yet, predominantly, these emphasized avatar attributes drew on participants’ self-image, and thus avatars were perceived by their owners as highly similar to themselves. The implications of these results are discussed against current frameworks of online identity and behavior. Most importantly, we use our results to extract design recommendations for improving avatar-driven applications

Self-disclosure, Privacy and the Internet

In this chapter, we examine the extant research literature on self-disclosure and the Internet, in particular by focussing on disclosure in Computer-Mediated Communication (CMC) and to web-based forms – both to surveys and in e-commerce applications. We also consider the links between privacy and self-disclosure, and the unique challenges (and opportunities) that the Internet poses for the protection of privacy. Finally, we propose three critical issues that unite the ways in which we can best understand the links between privacy, self-disclosure and new technology: trust and vulnerability, costs and benefits and control over personal information. Central to the chapter is the premise that self-disclosure online is a paradox: while visual anonymity and increased distance might heighten disclosure in one context (e.g. in person-to-person interactions or in online research), they do not seem to have the same effect when people are asked for personal information from commercial websites, usually because of a combination of privacy concerns, lack of trust and concern about how personal information will be used (Hoffman, Novak and Peralta, 1999; Metzger, 2004). Therefore, we propose that the wider context in whic