Examining the Distinct Antecedents of E-Mail Habits and its Influence on the Outcomes of a Phishing Attack
Abstract
While research has linked social media phishing susceptibility to individual Facebook habits, the underlying process by which habits lead to victimization and the extent to which it explains e-mail-based phishing remains unclear. The study compared the antecedents and consequences of e-mail habits and cognitive processing on the outcome of a simulated phishing attack. E-mail habits were rooted in stable personality dimensions of conscientiousness and emotional stability, while cognitive processing was premised on contextual information adequacy considerations. Interestingly, habits and processing jointly influenced the outcome of the attack: Systematic processing attenuated phishing susceptibility by a small factor; the cumulative effects of heuristic processing and e-mail habits, however, caused a fourfold increase in likely victimization, overwhelming any advantage from detailed processing.
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Habit slips underlie errors in responding to innocent-appearing email phishing attacks.
“For example, habit slips underlie errors in responding to innocent-appearing email phishing attacks (Vishwanath 2015).”
From Psychology of Habit. (2016) · cites this paper as Vishwanath 2015
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- Authors
- Vishwanath, A.
- Affiliations
- University at Buffalo, State University of New York (US)
- Corresponding author
- Vishwanath, Arun
- Venue
- Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication
- Publisher
- Oxford University Press (OUP)
- Published
- 2015-06-01
- Volume
- 20
- Issue
- 5
- Pages
- 570-584
- ISSN
- 1083-6101 (ISSN-L)
- OpenAlex
- W1867435648
- Cited by
- 85
- References
- 11
- Citations by year
- 2026: 7 · 2025: 10 · 2024: 10 · 2023: 11 · 2022: 10 · 2021: 8 · 2020: 7 · 2019: 4 · 2018: 9 · 2017: 4 · 2016: 4 · 2015: 1
- FWCI
- 16.18
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- closed
- Locations
- Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication (publishedVersion)
- Topics
- Physical Sciences › Computer Science › Information Systems › Spam and Phishing Detection
- Physical Sciences › Computer Science › Information Systems › Information and Cyber Security
- Physical Sciences › Computer Science › Information Systems › Cybercrime and Law Enforcement Studies
- Keywords
- phishing susceptibility, heuristic processing, systematic processing, conscientiousness, emotional stability, personality, cognitive processes
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