Karen Renaud
Marc Dupuis
ABSTRACT
Cyber security researchers are starting to experiment with fear appeals, with a wide variety of designs and reported efficaciousness. This makes it hard to derive recommendations for designing and deploying these interventions. We thus reviewed the wider fear appeal literature to arrive at a set of guidelines to assist cyber security researchers. Our review revealed a degree of dissent about whether or not fear appeals are indeed helpful and advisable. Our review also revealed a wide range of fear appeal experimental designs, in both cyber and other domains, which confirms the need for some standardized guidelines to inform practice in this respect. We propose a protocol for carrying out fear appeal experiments, and we review a sample of cyber security fear appeal studies, via this lens, to provide a snapshot of the current state of play. We hope the proposed experimental protocol will prove helpful to those who wish to engage in future cyber security fear appeal research.
- A. Adams and M. A. Sasse. Users are not the enemy. Communications of the ACM, 42(12):41--46, 1999.Google Scholar
Digital Library
- D. Albarracín, J. C. Gillette, A. N. Earl, L. R. Glasman, M. R. Durantini, and M.-H. Ho. A test of major assumptions about behavior change: a comprehensive look at the effects of passive and active HIV-prevention interventions since the beginning of the epidemic. Psychological Bulletin, 131(6):856--897, 2005.Google ScholarCross Ref
- Y. Albayram, M. M. H. Khan, T. Jensen, and N. Nguyen. "... better to use a lock screen than to worry about saving a few seconds of time": Effect of fear appeal in the context of smartphone locking behavior. In Thirteenth Symposium on Usable Privacy and Security (SOUPS 2017), pages 49--63, 2017.Google Scholar
- C. Alwall Svennefelt, E. Hunter, and P. Lundqvist. Evaluating the Swedish approach to motivating improved work safety conditions on farms: insights from fear appeals and the extended parallel processing model. Journal of Agromedicine, 23(4):355--373, 2018.Google ScholarCross Ref
- C. L. Anderson and R. Agarwal. Practicing safe computing: a multimedia empirical examination of home computer user security behavioral intentions. MIS Quarterly, 34(3):613--643, 2010.Google ScholarCross Ref
- D. Ariely and M. I. Norton. How actions create-not just reveal-preferences. Trends in Cognitive Sciences, 12(1):13--16, 2008.Google ScholarCross Ref
- S. Azagba and M. F. Sharaf. The effect of graphic cigarette warning labels on smoking behavior: evidence from the Canadian experience. Nicotine & Tobacco Research, 15(3):708--717, 2012.Google ScholarCross Ref
- A. Bandura. Self-efficacy: Toward a unifying theory of behavioral change. Psychological Review, 84(2):191--215, 1977.Google ScholarCross Ref
- A. Bandura. Perceived self-efficacy in the exercise of control over AIDS infection. Evaluation and Program Planning, 13(1):9--17, 1990.Google ScholarCross Ref
- A. Bandura. Social cognitive theory: An agentic perspective. Annual Review of Psychology, 52(1):1--26, 2001.Google ScholarCross Ref
- B. Bartikowski, M. Laroche, and M.-O. Richard. A content analysis of fear appeal advertising in Canada, China, and France. Journal of Business Research, 103:232--239, October 2019.Google ScholarCross Ref
- K. H. Beck. The effects of risk probability, outcome severity, efficacy of protection and access to protection on decision making: A further test of protection motivation theory. Social Behavior and Personality: an International Journal, 12(2):121--125, 1984.Google Scholar
- L. S. Beitelspacher, J. D. Hansen, A. C. Johnston, and G. D. Deitz. Exploring Consumer Privacy Concerns and RFID Technology: The Impact of Fear Appeals on Consumer Behaviors. Journal of Marketing Theory and Practice, 20(2):147--160, Apr 2012.Google ScholarCross Ref
- B. Berelson and G. A. Steiner. Human behavior: An inventory of scientific findings. Harcourt, Brace & World, Oxford, England, 1964.Google Scholar
- S. J. Blumberg. Guarding against threatening HIV prevention messages: An information-processing model. Health Education & Behavior, 27(6):780--795, 2000.Google ScholarCross Ref
- C. Boshoff and L. Toerien. Subconscious responses to fear-appeal health warnings: An exploratory study of cigarette packaging. South African Journal of Economic and Management Sciences, 20(1):1--13, 2017.Google ScholarCross Ref
- S. R. Boss, D. F. Galletta, P. B. Lowry, G. D. Moody, and P. Polak. What do systems users have to fear? Using fear appeals to engender threats and fear that motivate protective security behaviors. MIS Quarterly, 39(4):837--64, 2015.Google ScholarDigital Library
- F. J. Boster and P. Mongeau. Fear-arousing persuasive messages. Annals of the International Communication Association, 8(1):330--375, 1984.Google ScholarCross Ref
- L. Brennan and W. Binney. Fear, guilt, and shame appeals in social marketing. Journal of Business Research, 63(2):140--146, 2010.Google ScholarCross Ref
- T. G. Brown, J. Bhatti, and I. Di Leo. Interventions for addiction. In P. M. Miller, editor, Driving While Impaired (Treatments), volume 3, chapter 22. Elsevier Inc., 2013.Google Scholar
- D. R. Buchanan. An ethic for health promotion: rethinking the sources of human well-being. Oxford University Press, USA, 2000.Google Scholar
- D. T. Campbell and J. C. Stanley. Experimental and quasi-experimental designs for research. Ravenio Books, Chicago, 2015.Google Scholar
- L. Chen and X. Yang. Using EPPM to Evaluate the Effectiveness of Fear Appeal Messages Across Different Media Outlets to Increase the Intention of Breast Self-Examination Among Chinese Women. Health Communication, pages 1--8, 2018. Google ScholarCross Ref
- M.-F. Chen. Impact of fear appeals on pro-environmental behavior and crucial determinants. International Journal of Advertising, 35(1):74--92, 2016.Google ScholarCross Ref
- H. Cho. Unintended effects of fear appeals: The role of stage of change, threat, and efficacy. PhD thesis, Mass Media PhD Program, Michigan State University, 1999.Google Scholar
- H. Cho and C. T. Salmon. Fear appeals for individuals in different stages of change: Intended and unintended effects and implications on public health campaigns. Health Communication, 20(1):91--99, 2006.Google ScholarCross Ref
- H. Cho and C. T. Salmon. Unintended effects of health communication campaigns. Journal of communication, 57(2):293--317, 2006.Google ScholarCross Ref
- J. Cohen. Statistical power analysis for the behavioral sciences. Routledge Academic, USA, 1988.Google Scholar
- S. Cohen and S. D. Pressman. Positive affect and health. Current Directions in Psychological Science, 15(3):122--125, 2006.Google ScholarCross Ref
- R. E. Crossler. Protection motivation theory: Understanding determinants to backing up personal data. In Proceedings of the 43rd Hawaii International Conference on System Sciences, page 10. IEEE, Jan 2010.Google Scholar
- R. E. Crossler, A. C. Johnston, P. B. Lowry, Q. Hu, M. Warkentin, and R. Baskerville. Future directions for behavioral information security research. Computers & Security, 32:90--101, 2013.Google ScholarCross Ref
- J. M. Dabbs Jr and H. Leventhal. Effects of varying the recommendations in a fear-arousing communication. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 4(5):525--531, 1966.Google ScholarCross Ref
- E. H. Das, J. B. De Wit, and W. Stroebe. Fear appeals motivate acceptance of action recommendations: Evidence for a positive bias in the processing of persuasive messages. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 29(5):650--664, 2003.Google ScholarCross Ref
- B. Davis and C. Jansen. This may come as a surprise: How prior knowledge of information in a fear appeal is associated with message outcomes. Communicatio. South African Journal for Communication Theory and Research, 42(3):398--421, 2016.Google Scholar
- M. de Bruin and G.-J. Y. Peters. Let's not further obscure the debate about fear appeal messages for smokers. American Journal of Preventive Medicine, 44(5):e51, 2013.Google ScholarCross Ref
- N. De Hoog, W. Stroebe, and J. B. F. De Wit. The impact of fear appeals on processing and acceptance of action recommendations. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 31(1):24--33, 2005.Google ScholarCross Ref
- N. De Hoog, W. Stroebe, and J. B. F. De Wit. The impact of vulnerability to and severity of a health risk on processing and acceptance of fear-arousing communications: A meta-analysis. Review of General Psychology, 11(3):258--285, 2007.Google ScholarCross Ref
- J. P. Dillard. Rethinking the study of fear appeals: An emotional perspective. Communication Theory, 4(4):295--323, 1994.Google ScholarCross Ref
- J. P. Dillard, R. Li, E. Meczkowski, C. Yang, and L. Shen. Fear responses to threat appeals: Functional form, methodological considerations, and correspondence between static and dynamic data. Communication Research, 44(7):997--1018, 2017.Google ScholarCross Ref
- W. Dimas. Failed Herd Immunity: American Business Compliance and the United States Cyber-Security Policy's Clash with the European Union's General Data Protection Act. Loyola University Chicago International Law Review, 15:191--207, 2017.Google Scholar
- D. Dolinski and R. Nawrat. "Fear-then-relief" procedure for producing compliance: Beware when the danger is over. Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, 34(1):27--50, 1998.Google ScholarCross Ref
- C. Duhigg. The power of habit: Why we do what we do in life and business. Random House, London, 2012.Google Scholar
- M. Dupuis and R. E. Crossler. The Compromise of One's Personal Information: Trait Affect as an Antecedent in Explaining the Behavior of Individuals. In Proceedings of the 52nd Hawaii International Conference on System Sciences. IEEE, 2019.Google ScholarCross Ref
- M. Dupuis and S. Khadeer. Curiosity killed the organization: A psychological comparison between malicious and non-malicious insiders and the insider threat. In Proceedings of the 5th Annual Conference on Research in Information Technology, pages 35--40. ACM Press, 2016.Google ScholarDigital Library
- A. Earl and D. Albarracín. Nature, decay, and spiraling of the effects of fear-inducing arguments and HIV counseling and testing: A meta-analysis of the short-and long-term outcomes of HIV-prevention interventions. Health Psychology, 26(4):496--506, 2007.Google ScholarCross Ref
- S. Emery, G. Szczypka, E. Abril, Y. Kim, and L. Vera. Are you scared yet? Evaluating fear appeal messages in tweets about the tips campaign. Journal of Communication, 64(2):278--295, 2014.Google ScholarCross Ref
- J. M. Epstein. Modelling to contain pandemics. Nature, 460(7256):687--688, 2009.Google ScholarCross Ref
- M. Feinberg and R. Willer. The moral roots of environmental attitudes. Psychological Science, 24(1):56--62, 2013.Google ScholarCross Ref
- J. Finkenauer and P. W. Gavin. Scared straight: The panacea phenomenon revisited. Waveland Press, Prospect Heights, IL, 1999.Google Scholar
- D. L. Floyd, S. Prentice-Dunn, and R. W. Rogers. A meta-analysis of research on protection motivation theory. Journal of Applied Social Psychology, 30(2):407--429, 2000.Google ScholarCross Ref
- B. J. Fogg and J. Hreha. Behavior wizard:a method for matching target behaviors with solutions. In International Conference on Persuasive Technology, pages 117--131. Springer, 2010.Google ScholarDigital Library
- I. M. Franks and D. Maslovat. The importance of feedback to performance. In Essentials of Performance Analysis in Sport, pages 11--17. Routledge, 2015.Google Scholar
- D. P. French, E. Cameron, J. S. Benton, C. Deaton, and M. Harvie. Can communicating personalised disease risk promote healthy behaviour change? A systematic review of systematic reviews. Annals of Behavioral Medicine, 51(5):718--729, 2017.Google ScholarCross Ref
- N. H. Frijda, P. Kuipers, and E. Ter Schure. Relations among emotion, appraisal, and emotional action readiness. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 57(2):212--228, 1989.Google ScholarCross Ref
- J. M. George and E. Dane. Affect, emotion, and decision making. Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes, 136:47--55, 2016.Google ScholarCross Ref
- M. A. Gerend and J. K. Maner. Fear, anger, fruits, and veggies: Interactive effects of emotion and message framing on health behavior. Health Psychology, 30(4):420--423, 2011.Google ScholarCross Ref
- S. D. Gottlieb. Vaccine resistances reconsidered: Vaccine skeptics and the Jenny McCarthy effect. Biosocieties, 11(2):152--174, 2016.Google ScholarCross Ref
- D. P. Haefner. Arousing fear in dental health education. Journal of Public Health Dentistry, 25:140--146, 1965.Google ScholarCross Ref
- C. Haigh and N. A. Jones. An overview of the ethics of cyber-space research and the implication for nurse educators. Nurse Education Today, 25(1):3--8, 2005.Google ScholarCross Ref
- T. Halkjelsvik and J. Rise. Disgust in fear appeal anti-smoking advertisements: The effects on attitudes and abstinence motivation. Drugs: Education, Prevention and Policy, 22(4):362--369, 2015.Google ScholarCross Ref
- G. Hamilton, D. Cross, and K. Resnicow. Occasional cigarette smokers: Cue for harm reduction smoking education. Addiction Research, 8(5):419--437, 2000.Google ScholarCross Ref
- P. Hartmann, V. Apaolaza, C. D'Souza, J. M. Barrutia, and C. Echebarria. Environmental threat appeals in green advertising: The role of fear arousal and coping efficacy. International Journal of Advertising, 33(4):741--765, 2014.Google ScholarCross Ref
- G. Hastings, M. Stead, and J. Webb. Fear appeals in social marketing: Strategic and ethical reasons for concern. Psychology & Marketing, 21(11):961--986, 2004.Google ScholarCross Ref
- G. Hastings, M. Stead, and J. Webb. Fear appeals in social marketing: Strategic and ethical reasons for concern. Psychology & Marketing, 21(11):961--986, 2004.Google ScholarCross Ref
- H. Henson and E. Chang. Locus of control and the fundamental dimensions of moods. Psychological Reports, 82(3):1335--8, 1998.Google ScholarCross Ref
- T. Herath and H. R. Rao. Protection motivation and deterrence: a framework for security policy compliance in organisations. European Journal of Information Systems, 18(2):106--125, 2009.Google ScholarCross Ref
- M. A. Hewgill and G. R. Miller. Source credibility and response to fear-arousing communications. Speech Monographs, 32(2):95--101, 1965.Google ScholarCross Ref
- D. Hill, S. Chapman, and R. Donovan. The return of scare tactics. Tobacco Control, 7(1):5--8, 1998.Google ScholarCross Ref
- H. Hoeken, P. Swanepoel, E. Saal, and C. Jansen. Using message form to stimulate conversations: The case of tropes. Communication Theory, 19(1):49--65, 2009.Google ScholarCross Ref
- C. D. Hopkins, K. Shanahan, K. M. Hood, and A. White. An Argument for the Use of High Fear Appeals as an Effective Type II Diabetes Health Messaging Strategy: A Structured Abstract. In Creating Marketing Magic and Innovative Future Marketing Trends, pages 1193--1197. Springer, 2017.Google ScholarCross Ref
- I. A. Horowitz. Effects of volunteering, fear arousal, and number of communications on attitude change. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 11(1):34--37, 1969.Google ScholarCross Ref
- I. A. Horowitz. Attitude change as a function of perceived arousal. The Journal of Social Psychology, 87(1):117--126, 1972.Google ScholarCross Ref
- I. A. Horowitz and W. E. Gumenik. Effects of the volunteer subject, choice, and fear arousal on attitude change. Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, 6(3):293--303, 1970.Google ScholarCross Ref
- C. Hovland, I. Janis, and H. Kelly. Communication and Persuasion. Yale University Press, New Haven, 1953.Google Scholar
- C. Hunecke, A. Engler, R. Jara-Rojas, and P. M. Poortvliet. Understanding the role of social capital in adoption decisions: An application to irrigation technology. Agricultural Systems, 153:221--231, 2017.Google ScholarCross Ref
- M. R. Hyman and R. Tansey. The ethics of psychoactive ads. Journal of Business Ethics, 9(2):105--114, 1990.Google ScholarCross Ref
- C. A. Insko, A. Arkoff, and V. M. Insko. Effects of high and low fear-arousing communications upon opinions toward smoking. Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, 1(3):256--266, 1965.Google ScholarCross Ref
- I. L. Janis and S. Feshbach. Effects of fear-arousing communications. The Journal of Abnormal and Social Psychology, 48(1):78--92, 1953.Google ScholarCross Ref
- J. Jansen and P. van Schaik. The design and evaluation of a theory-based intervention to promote security behaviour against phishing. International Journal of Human-Computer Studies, 123:40--55, Mar 2019.Google ScholarCross Ref
- W. Janssens and P. De Pelsmacker. Fear Appeal in Traffic Safety Advertising: The moderating role of medium context, trait anxiety, and differences between drivers and non-drivers. Psychologica Belgica, 47(3):173--193, 2007.Google ScholarCross Ref
- J. L. Jenkins, M. Grimes, J. G. Proudfoot, and P. B. Lowry. Improving password cybersecurity through inexpensive and minimally invasive means: Detecting and deterring password reuse through keystroke-dynamics monitoring and just-in-time fear appeals. Information Technology for Development, 20(2):196--213, 2014.Google ScholarDigital Library
- A. C. Johnston and M. Warkentin. Fear appeals and information security behaviors: an empirical study. MIS Quarterly, 34(3):549--566, 2010.Google ScholarCross Ref
- A. C. Johnston, M. Warkentin, and M. Siponen. An Enhanced Fear Appeal Rhetorical Framework: Leveraging Threats to the Human Asset Through Sanctioning Rhetoric. MIS Quarterly, 39(1):113--134, Mar 2015.Google ScholarDigital Library
- S. S. Kegeles, J. P. Kirscht, D. P. Haefner, and I. M. Rosenstock. Survey of beliefs about cancer detection and taking Papanicolaou tests. Public Health Reports, 80(9):815--823, 1965.Google ScholarCross Ref
- L. T. Kessels, R. A. Ruiter, and B. M. Jansma. Increased attention but more efficient disengagement: neuroscientific evidence for defensive processing of threatening health information. Health Psychology, 29(4):346--354, 2010.Google ScholarCross Ref
- P. M. Kohn, M. S. Goodstadt, G. M. Cook, M. Sheppard, and G. Chan. Ineffectiveness of threat appeals about drinking and driving. Accident Analysis & Prevention, 14(6):457--464, 1982.Google ScholarCross Ref
- G. Kok, N. H. Gottlieb, G.-J. Y. Peters, P. D. Mullen, G. S. Parcel, R. A. Ruiter, M. E. Fernández, C. Markham, and L. K. Bartholomew. A taxonomy of behaviour change methods: an intervention mapping approach. Health Psychology Review, 10(3):297--312, 2016.Google ScholarCross Ref
- G. Kok, G.-J. Y. Peters, L. T. Kessels, G. A. Ten Hoor, and R. A. Ruiter. Ignoring theory and misinterpreting evidence: the false belief in fear appeals. Health Psychology Review, 12(2):111--125, 2018.Google ScholarCross Ref
- S. Kraus, E. El-Assal, and M. L. de Fleur. Fear-threat appeals in mass communication: An apparent contradiction. Communications Monographs, 33(1):23--29, 1966.Google Scholar
- H. P. Krisher, S. A. Darley, and J. M. Darley. Fear-provoking recommendations, intentions to take preventive actions, and actual preventive actions. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 26(2):301--308, 1973.Google ScholarCross Ref
- K. Krol, J. M. Spring, S. Parkin, and M. A. Sasse. Towards robust experimental design for user studies in security and privacy. In The LASER Workshop: Learning from Authoritative Security Experiment Results (LASER 2016), pages 21--31, 2016.Google Scholar
- A. Lang and N. S. Yegiyan. Understanding the interactive effects of emotional appeal and claim strength in health messages. Journal of Broadcasting & Electronic Media, 52(3):432--447, 2008.Google ScholarCross Ref
- M. S. LaTour and H. J. Rotfeld. There are threats and (maybe) fear-caused arousal: Theory and confusions of appeals to fear and fear arousal itself. Journal of Advertising, 26(3):45--59, 1997.Google ScholarCross Ref
- J. Lau, A. Lee, S. Wai, P. Mo, F. Fong, Z. Wang, L. Cameron, and V. Sheer. A randomized control trial for evaluating efficacies of two online cognitive interventions with and without fear-appeal imagery approaches in preventing unprotected anal sex among Chinese men who have sex with men. AIDS and Behavior, 20(9):1851--1862, 2016.Google ScholarCross Ref
- S. T. Lawson, S. K. Yeo, and E. Greene. The cyber-doom effect: The impact of fear appeals in the us cyber security debate. In Proceedings of the 8th International Conference on Cyber Conflict, pages 65--80. NATO CCO COE Publications, May 2016.Google ScholarCross Ref
- R. Lennon, R. Rentfro, and B. O'Leary. Social marketing and distracted marketing and distracted driving behaviors among young adults: The effectiveness of fear appeals. Academy of Marketing Studies Journal, 14(2):95--113, 2010.Google Scholar
- H. Leventhal. Findings and theory in the study of fear communications. In Advances in Experimental Social Psychology, volume 5, pages 119--186. Elsevier, 1970.Google Scholar
- H. Leventhal, R. Singer, and S. Jones. Effects of fear and specificity of recommendation upon attitudes and behavior. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 2(1):20--29, 1965.Google ScholarCross Ref
- H. Leventhal and J. C. Watts. Sources of resistance to fear-arousing communications on smoking and lung cancer. Journal of Personality, 34(2):155--175, 1966.Google ScholarCross Ref
- H. Leventhal, J. C. Watts, and F. Pagano. Effects of fear and instructions on how to cope with danger. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 6(3):313--321, 1967.Google ScholarCross Ref
- I. Lewis, B. Watson, R. Tay, and K. M. White. The role of fear appeals in improving driver safety: A review of the effectiveness of fear-arousing (threat) appeals in road safety advertising. International Journal of Behavioral Consultation and Therapy, 3(2):203--222, 2007.Google ScholarCross Ref
- I. Lewis, B. Watson, and K. M. White. An examination of message-relevant affect in road safety messages: Should road safety advertisements aim to make us feel good or bad? Transportation Research Part F: Traffic Psychology and Behaviour, 11(6):403--417, 2008.Google ScholarCross Ref
- I. M. Lewis, B. Watson, K. M. White, and R. Tay. Promoting public health messages: Should we move beyond fear-evoking appeals in road safety? Qualitative Health Research, 17(1):61--74, 2007.Google ScholarCross Ref
- I. Lynch, L. M. De Bruin, N. Cassimjee, and C. Wagner. A qualitative investigation of South African cigarette smokers' perceptions of fear appeal messages in anti-smoking advertising advertising. Health SA Gesondheid, 14(1), 2009.Google Scholar
- J. T. MacCurdy. The Structure of Morale. Cambridge University Press, New York, 1943.Google Scholar
- J. Maddux and R. Rogers. Protection motivation and self-efficacy: A revised theory of fear appeals and attitude change. Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, 19(5):469--479, 1983.Google ScholarCross Ref
- M. A. Mahmood, M. Siponen, D. Straub, H. R. Rao, and T. Raghu. Moving toward black hat research in information systems security: an editorial introduction to the special issue. MIS Quarterly, 34(3):431--433, 2010.Google ScholarCross Ref
- E. W. Maibach, M. Nisbet, P. Baldwin, K. Akerlof, and G. Diao. Reframing climate change as a public health issue: an exploratory study of public reactions. BMC Public Health, 10(1):299--310, 2010.Google ScholarCross Ref
- K. Marett, A. Vedadi, and A. Durcikova. A quantitative textual analysis of three types of threat communication and subsequent maladaptive responses. Computers & Security, 80:25--35, Jan 2019.Google ScholarCross Ref
- R. Markšaitytė, D. Šakinytė, L. Šeibokaitė, A. Endriulaitienė, K. Žardeckaitė-Matulaitienė, and J. Slavinskienė. The road safety advertisements targeting drunk driving: Do threat appeals actually arouse fear? In Proceedings of the 22nd International Scientific Conference. Transport Means. Part 1. Kaunas University of Technology [Vol. 22(1)], Trakai, Lithuania, October 3--5 2018.Google Scholar
- M. L. Markus and D. Robey. Information technology and organizational change: causal structure in theory and research. Management Science, 34(5):583--598, 1988.Google ScholarCross Ref
- S. Mayor. Baby doll simulation scheme does not reduce teen pregnancies, study finds. British Medical Journal, 354, 2016.Google Scholar
- A. McCluskey and M. Lovarini. Providing education on evidence-based practice improved knowledge but did not change behaviour: a before and after study. BMC Medical Education, 5(1):40, 2005.Google ScholarCross Ref
- W. McGuire. Personality and attitude change: An information processing theory. In A. G. Greenwald, T. C. Brock, and T. M. Ostrom, editors, Psychological Foundations of Attitudes, pages 171--196. Academic Press, 1968.Google ScholarCross Ref
- B. A. Mellers. Choice and the relative pleasure of consequences. Psychological Bulletin, 126(6):910--924, 2000.Google ScholarCross Ref
- J. S. Mill. Utilitarianism (1863). Utilitarianism, Liberty, Representative Government, pages 7--9, 1859.Google Scholar
- N. E. Miller. Studies of fear as an acquirable drive: I. Fear as motivation and fear-reduction as reinforcement in the learning of new responses. Journal of Experimental Psychology, 38(1):89--101, 1948.Google ScholarCross Ref
- S. Milne, P. Sheeran, and S. Orbell. Prediction and intervention in health-related behavior: A meta-analytic review of protection motivation theory. Journal of Applied Social Psychology, 30(1):106--143, 2000.Google ScholarCross Ref
- M. Mostafa. Neural correlates of fear appeal in advertising: An fMRI analysis. Journal of Marketing Communications, pages 1--25, 2018.Google Scholar
- N. Muthusamy, T. R. Levine, and R. Weber. Scaring the already scared: Some problems with HIV/AIDS fear appeals in Namibia. Journal of Communication, 59(2):317--344, 2009.Google ScholarCross Ref
- F. Mwagwabi, T. McGill, and M. Dixon. Improving compliance with password guidelines: How user perceptions of passwords and security threats affect compliance with guidelines. In 47th Hawaii International Conference on System Sciences, pages 3188--3197. IEEE, Jan 2014.Google ScholarDigital Library
- F. Mwagwabi, T.J. McGill, and M. Dixon. Short-term and long-term effects of fear appeals in improving compliance with password guidelines. Communications of the Association for Information Systems, 42(7):147--182, Feb 2018.Google Scholar
- R. L. Nabi, D. Roskos-Ewoldsen, and F. Dillman Carpentier. Subjective knowledge and fear appeal effectiveness: Implications for message design. Health Communication, 23(2):191--201, 2008.Google ScholarCross Ref
- D.J. O'Keefe. Persuasion: Theory and research, volume 2. Sage, Thousand Oaks, 2002.Google Scholar
- D.J. O'Keefe. Misunderstandings of effect sizes in message effects research. Communication Methods and Measures, 11(3):210--219, 2017.Google ScholarCross Ref
- M. T. O'Keefe. The anti-smoking commercials: A study of television's impact on behavior. The Public Opinion Quarterly, 35(2):242--248, 1971.Google ScholarCross Ref
- S. O'Neill and S. Nicholson-Cole. "Fear won't do it" promoting positive engagement with climate change through visual and iconic representations. Science Communication, 30(3):355--379, 2009.Google ScholarCross Ref
- J. R. Ordoñana, F. Gonzalez-Javier, L. Espín-López, and J. Gómez-Amor. Self-report and psychophysiological responses to fear appeals. Human Communication Research, 35(2):195--220, 2009.Google ScholarCross Ref
- A. Ort and A. Fahr. Using efficacy cues in persuasive health communication is more effective than employing threats-An experimental study of a vaccination intervention against Ebola. British Journal of Health Psychology, 23(3):665--684, 2018.Google ScholarCross Ref
- A. Ortony and T. J. Turner. What's basic about basic emotions? Psychological Review, 97(3):315--331, 1990.Google ScholarCross Ref
- J. W. Out and K. D. Lafreniere. Baby Think It Over (R): Using role-play to prevent teen pregnancy. Adolescence, 36(143):571--82, 2001.Google Scholar
- G.-J. Y. Peters, M. De Bruin, and R. Crutzen. Everything should be as simple as possible, but no simpler: towards a protocol for accumulating evidence regarding the active content of health behaviour change interventions. Health Psychology Review, 9(1):1--14, 2015.Google ScholarCross Ref
- G.-J. Y. Peters, R. A. Ruiter, and G. Kok. Threatening communication: a critical re-analysis and a revised meta-analytic test of fear appeal theory. Health Psychology Review, 7(sup1):S8--S31, 2013.Google ScholarCross Ref
- G.-J. Y. Peters, R. A. Ruiter, and G. Kok. Threatening communication: A qualitative study of fear appeal effectiveness beliefs among intervention developers, policymakers, politicians, scientists, and advertising professionals. International Journal of Psychology, 49(2):71--79, 2014.Google ScholarCross Ref
- A. Petrosino, C. Turpin-Petrosino, and J. O. Finckenauer. Well-meaning programs can have harmful effects! Lessons from experiments of programs such as Scared Straight. Crime & Delinquency, 46(3):354--379, 2000.Google ScholarCross Ref
- E. S. Poole, M. Chetty, T. Morgan, R. E. Grinter, and W. K. Edwards. Computer help at home: methods and motivations for informal technical support. In Proceedings of the SIGCHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems, pages 739--748. ACM, 2009.Google ScholarDigital Library
- L. Popova. The extended parallel process model: Illuminating the gaps in research. Health Education & Behavior, 39(4):455--473, 2012.Google ScholarCross Ref
- C. Posey, T. L. Roberts, and P. B. Lowry. The impact of organizational commitment on insiders' motivation to protect organizational information assets. Journal of Management Information Systems, 32(4):179--214, 2015.Google ScholarCross Ref
- J. H. Price, J. A. Dake, J. Murnan, J. Dimmig, and S. Akpanudo. Power analysis in survey research: Importance and use for health educators. American Journal of Health Education, 36(4):202--207, Aug 2005.Google ScholarCross Ref
- D. W. Putwain, G. Nakhla, A. Liversidge, L. J. Nicholson, B. Porter, and M. Reece. Teachers use of fear appeals prior to a high-stakes examination: Is frequency linked to perceived student engagement and how do students respond? Teaching and Teacher Education, 61:73--83, 2017.Google ScholarCross Ref
- D. W. Putwain, W. Symes, and H. M. Wilkinson. Fear appeals, engagement, and examination performance: The role of challenge and threat appraisals. British Journal of Educational Psychology, 87(1):16--31, 2017.Google ScholarCross Ref
- S. Radelfinger. Some effects of fear-arousing communications on preventive health behavior. Health Education Monographs, 1(19):2--15, 1965.Google ScholarCross Ref
- J. D. Ragsdale and K. R. Durham. Audience response to religious fear appeals. Review of Religious Research, 28(1):40--50, 1986.Google ScholarCross Ref
- K. Renaud, R. Otondo, and M. Warkentin. "This is the way `I' create my passwords"... does the endowment effect deter people from changing the way they create their passwords? Computers & Security, 82:241--260, 2019.Google ScholarCross Ref
- N. Rhodes. Fear-appeal messages: Message processing and affective attitudes. Communication Research, 44(7):952--975, 2017.Google ScholarCross Ref
- R. N. Rimal. Perceived risk and self-efficacy as motivators: Understanding individuals' long-term use of health information. Journal of Communication, 51(4):633--654, 2001.Google ScholarCross Ref
- P. A. Rippetoe and R. W. Rogers. Effects of components of protection-motivation theory on adaptive and maladaptive coping with a health threat. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 52(3):596--604, 1987.Google ScholarCross Ref
- R. W. Rogers. A protection motivation theory of fear appeals and attitude change1. The Journal of Psychology, 91(1):93--114, 1975.Google ScholarCross Ref
- R. W. Rogers. Cognitive and psychological processes in fear appeals and attitude change: A revised theory of protection motivation. Social Psychophysiology: A Sourcebook, pages 153--176, 1983.Google Scholar
- R. W. Rogers and C. R. Mewborn. Fear appeals and attitude change: effects of a threat's noxiousness, probability of occurrence, and the efficacy of coping responses. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 34(1):54--61, 1976.Google ScholarCross Ref
- A. Rosenberg. Philosophy of science: A contemporary introduction. Routledge, London and New York, 2011.Google Scholar
- R. Ruiter, L. Kessels, G. Peters, and G. Kok. Sixty years of fear appeal research: Current state of the evidence. International Journal of Psychology, 49(2):63--70, 2014.Google ScholarCross Ref
- R. A. Ruiter, C. Abraham, and G. Kok. Scary warnings and rational precautions: A review of the psychology of fear appeals. Psychology and Health, 16(6):613--630, 2001.Google ScholarCross Ref
- L. Shen and E. Bigsby. The SAGE handbook of persuasion developments in theory and practice. Sage, Thousand Oaks, Calif, 2012.Google Scholar
- J. D. Shropshire, M. Warkentin, and A. C. Johnston. Impact of negative message framing on security adoption. Journal of Computer Information Systems, 51(1):41--51, 2010.Google Scholar
- N. R. Simonson and R. M. Lundy. The effectiveness of persuasive communication presented under conditions of irrelevant fear. Journal of Communication, 16(1):32--37, 1966.Google ScholarCross Ref
- J. K. Simpson. Appeal to fear in health care: appropriate or inappropriate? Chiropractic & Manual Therapies, 25(27):1--10, 2017.Google Scholar
- S. Slavin, C. Batrouney, and D. Murphy. Fear appeals and treatment side-effects: an effective combination for HIV prevention? AIDS Care, 19(1):130--137, 2007.Google ScholarCross Ref
- R. D. Stainback and R. W. Rogers. Identifying effective components of alcohol abuse prevention programs: Effects of fear appeals, message style, and source expertise. International Journal of the Addictions, 18(3):393--405, 1983.Google ScholarCross Ref
- B. Sternthal and C. S. Craig. Fear appeals: Revisited and revised. Journal of Consumer Research, 1(3):22--34, 1974.Google ScholarCross Ref
- C. E. Stewart, A. M. Vasu, and E. Keller. Community guard: A crowdsourced home cyber-security system. In Proceedings of the ACM International workshop on security in software defined networks & network function virtualization, pages 1--6. ACM, 2017.Google Scholar
- D. Straub. Black hat, white hat studies in information security. Keynote Presentation of the Dewald Roode Workshop on Information Systems Security Research, IFIP WG8.11/WGl1.n, 8, 2009.Google Scholar
- S. Sutton and J. Eiser. The effect of fear-arousing communications on cigarette smoking: An expectancy-value approach. Journal of Behavioral Medicine, 7(1):13--33, 1984.Google ScholarCross Ref
- K. Sweeny, D. Melnyk, W. Miller, and J. A. Shepperd. Information avoidance: Who, what, when, and why. Review of General Psychology, 14(4):340--353, 2010.Google ScholarCross Ref
- M. B. Tannenbaum, J. Hepler, R. S. Zimmerman, L. Saul, S. Jacobs, K. Wilson, and D. Albarracín. Appealing to fear: A meta-analysis of fear appeal effectiveness and theories. Psychological Bulletin, 141(6):1178--1204, 2015.Google ScholarCross Ref
- P.-A. Tengland. Behavior change or empowerment: on the ethics of health-promotion strategies. Public Health Ethics, 5(2):140--153, 2012.Google ScholarCross Ref
- M. Terblanche-Smit and N. Terblanche. The effect of fear appeal HIV/AIDS social Marketing on Behavior: Evaluating the Importance of Market Segmentation. In 9th International Congress of the International Association on Public and Non-Profit, pages 31--38, 2010.Google Scholar
- J. F. Tunner Jr, E. Day, and M. R. Crask. Protection motivation theory: An extension of fear appeals theory in communication. Journal of Business Research, 19(4):267--276, 1989.Google ScholarCross Ref
- A. Vance, D. Eargle, K. Ouimet, and D. Straub. Enhancing password security through interactive fear appeals: A web-based field experiment. In 46th Hawaii International Conference on System Sciences (HICSS), pages 2988--2997, 2013.Google ScholarDigital Library
- K. E. Vaniea, E. Rader, and R. Wash. Betrayed by updates: how negative experiences affect future security. In Proceedings of the SIGCHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems, pages 2671--2674. ACM, 2014.Google ScholarDigital Library
- J. van't Riet and R. A. Ruiter. Defensive reactions to health-promoting information: An overview and implications for future research. Health Psychology Review, 7(sup1):S104--S136, 2013.Google ScholarCross Ref
- D. Västfjäll, P. Slovic, W. J. Burns, A. Erlandsson, L. Koppel, E. Asutay, and G. Tinghög. The arithmetic of emotion: Integration of incidental and integral affect in judgments and decisions. Frontiers in Psychology, 7:325, 2016. Google ScholarCross Ref
- A. Vishwanath, T. Herath, R. Chen, J. Wang, and H. R. Rao. Why do people get phished? Testing individual differences in phishing vulnerability within an integrated, information processing model. Decision Support Systems, 51(3):576--586, 2011.Google ScholarDigital Library
- M. Warkentin, D. Straub, and K. Malimage. Featured talk: Measuring secure behavior: A research commentary. In Annual Symposium of Information Assurance & Secure Knowledge Management, Albany, NY, 2012.Google Scholar
- M. Warkentin, E. Walden, A. Johnston, and D. Straub. Neural Correlates of Protection Motivation for Secure IT Behaviors: An fMRI Examination. Journal of the Association for Information Systems, 17(3):194--215, Mar 2016.Google ScholarCross Ref
- D. Watson and L. A. Clark. The PANAS-X: Manual for the Positive and Negative Affect Schedule - Expanded Form, 1994. University of Iowa.Google Scholar
- N. D. Weinstein. Perceived probability, perceived severity, and health-protective behavior. Health Psychology, 19(1):65--74, 2000.Google ScholarCross Ref
- K. Witte. Putting the fear back into fear appeals: The extended parallel process model. Communications Monographs, 59(4):329--349, 1992.Google ScholarCross Ref
- K. Witte. Fear as motivator, fear as inhibitor: Using the extended parallel process model to explain fear appeal successes and failures. In Handbook of Communication and Emotion, pages 423--450. Elsevier, 1996.Google ScholarCross Ref
- K. Witte and M. Allen. A meta-analysis of fear appeals: Implications for effective public health campaigns. Health Education & Behavior, 27(5):591--615, 2000.Google ScholarCross Ref
- K. Witte, G. Meyer, and D. Martell. Effective health risk messages: A step-by-step guide. Sage, Thousand Oaks, 2001.Google Scholar
- Ł. P. Wojciechowski and V. Babjaková. Necromarketing in the Media and Marketing Communications. Social Communication, 2(2):15--29, Oct 2015.Google Scholar
- M. C. Yzer, B. G. Southwell, and M. T. Stephenson. Inducing fear as a public communication campaign strategy. In R. E. Rice and C. K. Atkin, editors, Public Communication Campaigns, pages 163--176. Sage, Thousand Oaks, CA, 4 edition, 2012.Google Scholar
Index Terms
- Cyber security fear appeals: unexpectedly complicated
Recommendations
Fear appeals and information security behaviors: an empirical study
Information technology executives strive to align the actions of end users with the desired security posture of management and of the firm through persuasive communication. In many cases, some element of fear is incorporated within these communications. ...
Scoping the ethical principles of cybersecurity fear appeals
AbstractFear appeals are used in many domains. Cybersecurity researchers are also starting to experiment with fear appeals, many reporting positive outcomes. Yet there are ethical concerns related to the use of fear to motivate action. In this paper, we ...
Correlation between Psychological and Physiological Responses during Fear
BIOSTEC 2014: Proceedings of the International Joint Conference on Biomedical Engineering Systems and Technologies - Volume 4The purpose of this study is to examine the physiological responses to predict the psychological level of perceived fear. Thirty male and female college students (15 male and 15 female, mean age: 22.6±1.24) participated in the experiment. EDA (...
Comments