Although many individuals are highly concerned about their information security, they often engage in reckless behaviors, called as security-threatening behaviors. IS scholars in the area of behavioral information security have increasingly paid attention towards how to mitigate the security-threatening behaviors of individuals. It is argued that if a fear appeal is used appropriately, individuals become more concerned about security and thus engage less in security-threatening behaviors. The purpose of this study is to examine how to design effective messages for individuals, so that they can feel fear related to security-threats and reduce behaviors that may jeopardize security. Specifically, we apply insights gained from cognitive bias rooted in a behavioral economics in designing fear appeal cues that are more effective to induce fear among individuals. We first provide an overview of prior relevant literature to offer theoretical foundations for fear appeal, protection motivation theory, risk communication, and cognitive biases (ratio-bias, social distance, goal framing, and visual preference heuristics). Then, we develop and empirically test a research model and hypotheses. Specifically, using password change context, the model and hypotheses were tested with data collected from a laboratory experiment. The results demonstrate that fear appeal cues were found to evoke fear appeal in protection motivation model. Therefore, our findings suggest that properly constructed fear appeal cues influence threat appraisal and fear, which in turn influence behavioral intention for security protection. Further, we found that response efficacy moderates the relationship from fear to behavioral intention
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Abstract I. Introduction II. Conceptual Background 2.1. Fear Appeal and Protection Motivation Theory 2.2. Fear Appeal as Risk Communications 2.3. Cognitive Bias and Fear Appeal Cues 2.4. Moderating Roles of Response and Self-Efficacy 2.5. Control Variables IV. Research Methodology 4.1. Experimental Materials 4.2. Subjects 4.3. Measurement Development 4.4. Experimental Procedures V. Data Analysis and Results 5.1. Manipulation Checks 5.2. Construct Validation 5.3. Common Method Bias (CMB) 5.4. Hypotheses Testing VI. Concluding Remarks 6.1. Theoretical Implications 6.2. Managerial Implications References