The impact of a cause–effect elaboration procedure on information security risk perceptions: a construal fit perspective | Zendy

Zhang Hao Goh | Zendy; Minzheng Hou | Zendy; Hichang Cho | Zendy

Open Access

The impact of a cause–effect elaboration procedure on information security risk perceptions: a construal fit perspective

Author(s) -

Zhang Hao Goh,

Minzheng Hou,

Hichang Cho

Publication year - 2022

Publication title -

journal of cybersecurity

Language(s) - English

Resource type - Journals

SCImago Journal Rank - 0.438

H-Index - 16

ISSN - 2057-2093

DOI - 10.1093/cybsec/tyab026

Subject(s) - construal level theory , risk perception , perspective (graphical) , perception , elaboration likelihood model , elaboration , psychology , computer security , concreteness , cognition , social psychology , information security , internet privacy , computer science , cognitive psychology , persuasion , artificial intelligence , philosophy , neuroscience , humanities

Cybersecurity breaches are on the rise. Extant literature in the development of strategies to enhance IT users’ online protective behaviours has neglected users’ cognitive processing of cybersecurity risk information. This study demonstrates a cause–effect elaboration procedure based on the concept of construal fit to influence online users’ cybersecurity risk perceptions. Using online experiments (N = 534), the construal fit between elaboration of causes vs effects of cybersecurity risks and perceived temporal distance (distant vs near) was manipulated. The results revealed that a construal fit between the elaboration of ‘effects’ (vs ‘causes’) and temporally ‘near’ (vs ‘distant’) cybersecurity risks enhanced users’ risk perceptions, which in turn predicted protective behavioural intentions. Ensuring construal fit is a novel, cognition-based approach to safeguard IT users against online threats. Our findings enrich existing staged theories used to investigate cybersecurity risk perceptions and suggest to practitioners that heightened cyber risk perception can effectively be induced by simultaneously enhancing the concreteness of IT users’ construal of cybersecurity incidents and emphasizing on its negative consequences (vs causes).

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