Phishing Susceptibility – a Cognitive Dissonance Persuasion View

2023 | Americas Conference on Information Systems | Citations: 0

Authors: Xie, Wei; Iyer, Lakshmi

Abstract: Phishing remains the most commonly employed technique for executing cybercrime ... Expand

Abstract: Phishing remains the most commonly employed technique for executing cybercrime activity. At its core, phishing relies on persuasive techniques that exploit human vulnerabilities. Yet, the current knowledge and understanding of how people respond to persuasiveness in phishing are scarce. Looking through the lens of cognitive dissonance theory, this research proposes a five-step theoretical framework and derives an initial psychometric model to examine and compare the six persuasion techniques on phishing susceptibility. We argue that the cognitive dissonance generated by persuasive techniques influences phishing susceptibility. We also argue for the mediating mechanism of preference for cognitive consistency and mindful attention awareness. This research contributes to understanding human vulnerabilities to phishing by introducing a general sequential model. The model permits the manipulation and testing of different contextual and individual attributes' constructs, provides flexibility to the whole and part assessment, and allows building and expanding knowledge about the persuasive effect of phishing. Collapse

Topics: phishing mindfulness SMS phishing

Methods: psychometrics theory development

Theories: cognitive dissonance theory