Who Provides Phishing Training? Facts, Stories, and People Like Me

Key finding

Facts-and-advice training beat no training only when presented by a security expert, while story-based training worked much better when told by a peer. Who delivers training can strongly change security outcomes.

Why it matters

Direct evidence that narrative from relatable peers changes phishing behavior, supporting story-driven, social transmission of security lessons.

Informs

• Shares scam stories with coworkers supports
• Treats people as partners in security supports

Cite

Wash, R., & Cooper, M. M. (2018). Who Provides Phishing Training? Facts, Stories, and People Like Me. Proceedings of the 2018 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems. https://doi.org/10.1145/3173574.3174066