Real or bogus: Predicting susceptibility to phishing with economic experiments

Area of Science:

• Behavioral Economics
• Cybersecurity
• Human-Computer Interaction

Background:

• Phishing attacks pose significant cybersecurity threats.
• Understanding individual susceptibility to phishing is crucial for effective defense strategies.
• Previous research has identified demographic factors correlated with phishing vulnerability.

Purpose of the Study:

• To investigate the predictive power of individual behavioral traits on the ability to identify phishing attempts.
• To explore the relationship between risk tolerance, curiosity, trust, and phishing detection accuracy.
• To replicate and extend demographic findings on phishing vulnerability.

Main Methods:

• A lab-in-the-field experiment was conducted.
• Participants included business and finance staff from a large U.S. public university.
• Behavioral traits and performance in evaluating interfaces were assessed.

Main Results:

• Participants with higher risk intolerance, curiosity, and lower trust made more errors in interface evaluation.
• Demographic factors such as age, gender, and education level were also found to correlate with phishing vulnerability, replicating prior studies.
• Behavioral characteristics demonstrated predictive power for phishing identification ability.

Conclusions:

• Individual behavioral traits, specifically risk intolerance, curiosity, and trust, are significant predictors of an individual's ability to identify phishing attempts.
• These behavioral insights can inform the development of targeted cybersecurity training and awareness programs.
• Integrating behavioral assessments may enhance strategies for mitigating phishing risks.