Understanding online safety behaviors: A protection motivation theory perspective

Hsin Yi Sandy Tsai; Mengtian Jiang; Saleem Alhabash; Robert Larose; Nora J. Rifon; Shelia R. Cotten

doi:10.1016/j.cose.2016.02.009

Understanding online safety behaviors: A protection motivation theory perspective

Hsin Yi Sandy Tsai, Mengtian Jiang, Saleem Alhabash, Robert Larose, Nora J. Rifon, Shelia R. Cotten

Integrated Strategic Communication

Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review

229 Scopus citations

Abstract

Internet users experience a variety of online security threats that require them to enact safety precautions. Protection motivation theory (PMT) provides a theoretical framework for understanding Internet users' security protection that has informed past research. Ongoing research on online safety recommends new motivational factors that are integrated here in a PMT framework for the first time. Using PMT, a cross-sectional survey (N = 988) of Amazon Mechanical Turk (MTurk) users was conducted to examine how classical and new PMT factors predicted security intentions. Coping appraisal variables were the strongest predictors of online safety intentions, especially habit strength, response efficacy, and personal responsibility. Threat severity was also a significant predictor. Incorporating additional factors (i.e., prior experiences, subjective norms, habit strength, perceived security support, and personal responsibility) into the conventional PMT model increased the model's explanatory power by 15%. Findings are discussed in relation to advancing PMT within the context of online security for home computer users.

Original language	English
Pages (from-to)	138-150
Number of pages	13
Journal	Computers and Security
Volume	59
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cose.2016.02.009
State	Published - Jun 2016

Bibliographical note

Publisher Copyright:
© 2016 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Funding

Dr. Shelia R. Cotten, a sociologist, is a Professor in the Department of Media and Information at Michigan State University. She studies technology use across the life course, and the social, educational, and health outcomes of using various technologies. Her research has been funded by the National Institutes of Health and the National Science Foundation. Her work has been recently published in Computers & Education, Social Science & Medicine, Computers in Human Behavior, Journal of Family Issues, Journal of Applied Gerontology, Journal of Gerontology: Social Sciences, and Information, Communication, and Society. She and Laura Robinson are the co-editors of the Emerald Series in Media and Communication . In 2013, she won the award for Public Sociology from the Communication and Information Technologies section of the American Sociological Association (CITASA). This work was supported by the National Science Foundation under Grant No. 1318885 .

Funders	Funder number
National Science Foundation Arctic Social Science Program
National Institutes of Health (NIH)
Directorate for Social, Behavioral and Economic Sciences	1318885

Keywords

Computer security
Habit strength
Online safety
Protection motivation theory
Response cost

ASJC Scopus subject areas

General Computer Science
Law

Access to Document

10.1016/j.cose.2016.02.009

Cite this

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title = "Understanding online safety behaviors: A protection motivation theory perspective",

abstract = "Internet users experience a variety of online security threats that require them to enact safety precautions. Protection motivation theory (PMT) provides a theoretical framework for understanding Internet users' security protection that has informed past research. Ongoing research on online safety recommends new motivational factors that are integrated here in a PMT framework for the first time. Using PMT, a cross-sectional survey (N = 988) of Amazon Mechanical Turk (MTurk) users was conducted to examine how classical and new PMT factors predicted security intentions. Coping appraisal variables were the strongest predictors of online safety intentions, especially habit strength, response efficacy, and personal responsibility. Threat severity was also a significant predictor. Incorporating additional factors (i.e., prior experiences, subjective norms, habit strength, perceived security support, and personal responsibility) into the conventional PMT model increased the model's explanatory power by 15%. Findings are discussed in relation to advancing PMT within the context of online security for home computer users.",

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AU - Jiang, Mengtian

AU - Alhabash, Saleem

AU - Larose, Robert

AU - Rifon, Nora J.

AU - Cotten, Shelia R.

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KW - Response cost

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Understanding online safety behaviors: A protection motivation theory perspective

Abstract

Bibliographical note

Funding

Keywords

ASJC Scopus subject areas

Access to Document

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