Stories or statistics: How do we tell the public about cybersecurity risks and get support?

 

By Dr Zhuo Hu, Dr Adrian Banks, Dr Irina Cojuharenco (University of Surrey)                                                                     

As introduced in a previous blog post (see brief overview of the AP4L project) individuals experiencing life transitions become highly vulnerable and may neglect their online safety and privacy during these challenging periods. The AP4L project is committed to supporting people undergoing significant life transitions to be safer online. 

We acknowledge that the public should also get involved in our work to support people collectively, whether it involves donating to support events promoting cybersecurity risk awareness, taking part in the design of educational materials or, sharing best practice. 

Behavioural science to date suggests that communicating risks with emotional narrative accounts of the experiences of victims of possible harms evokes more help than describing risks using “cold” statistics (Bakker et al., 2019; Lee & Feeley, 2018). However, the behavioural science team at the University of Surrey wants to submit this prediction to a rigorous test because cybersecurity risks often require knowledge-intensive forms of help and development of resources rather than mere sharing of existing resources (as in donations).

Also, we want to explore the reactions of both the  general public and those in the support network of people undergoing life transitions, including charity workers whose engagement is often invaluable. What we learn from our behavioural experiments with different populations and different forms of help will benefit the AP4L project in terms of informing the design of one of our key deliverables, the Risk Playground - an online tool that is meant to help raise awareness about cybersecurity risks during life transitions, and connect those who seek support with those who are able, qualified and willing to provide it. 

If you are interested to take part in life transition and online privacy studies led by our behavioural team, these take place online, and you can get notified about opportunities by registering with the University of Surrey Business and Economics Experiments (USBEE) Laboratory at https://usbee.surrey.ac.uk (follow “Register as Supporter” link and use Recruitment ID: AP4L2024). There is no obligation to take part unless you sign up for a study of your choice once registered (study-specific information will provide details of compensation, time, mode and task), - we thank you in advance for your willingness to support research on how to protect online privacy for people going through life changing events.

 

 

 

References

Bakker, M. H., Kerstholt, J. H., van Bommel, M., & Giebels, E. (2019). Decision-making during a crisis: The interplay of narratives and statistical information before and after crisis communication. Journal of Risk Research, 22(11), 1409–1424. https://doi.org/10.1080/13669877.2018.1473464

Lee, S., & Feeley, T. H. (2018). The identifiable victim effect: Using an experimental-causal-chain

design to test for mediation. Current Psychology, 37(4), 875-885. https://doi.org/10.1007/s12144-017-9570-3

 

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