Fear Appeals and Information Security Behaviors: An Empirical Study

Key finding

Fear appeals did increase people's intentions to adopt recommended security actions, but the effect varied across people and depended partly on self-efficacy, response efficacy, perceived threat severity and social influence.

Why it matters

Heavily cited evidence that fear messaging can raise security intentions, provided people believe they can act; this complicates a blanket rejection of fear.

Informs

• Builds confidence, not fear, in awareness messages supports

Cite

Johnston, A. C., & Warkentin, M. (2010). Fear Appeals and Information Security Behaviors: An Empirical Study. MIS Quarterly, 34(3), 549-566. https://doi.org/10.2307/25750691