Individual Differences in Psychological Stress Associated with Data Breach Experiences

Data breach incidents are now a regular occurrence, with millions of people affected worldwide. Few studies have examined the psychological aspects of data breach experiences, however, or the individual differences that influence how people react to these events. In this study, we examined the psychological stress associated with a personal experience with a data breach and several individual differences hypothesized to modulate such stress (age, gender, digital security awareness and expertise, trait anxiety, negative emotionality, and propensity to worry). A student sample (N = 166) and a community sample (N = 359) completed an online survey that asked participants to describe their most serious data breach and then complete the Impact of Events Scale—Revised (IES-R) to answer specific questions about the nature of the stress they experienced after the breach. Standard measures of trait anxiety, negative emotionality, and propensity to worry were also completed. A Data Breach Severity Index (DBSI) was created to quantify the invasiveness and consequences of each participant’s data breach. Hierarchical multiple regression analyses were used to identify demographic variables and psychological characteristics predictive of IES-R scores while controlling for DBSI scores. As expected, more invasive and consequential data breaches were associated with higher IES-R scores (greater data-breach-induced stress). Women had higher IES-R scores than men, and this difference persisted after controlling for gender differences in anxiety, negative emotionality, and propensity to worry. Greater daily social media use was associated with higher IES-R scores, whereas higher digital security expertise was associated with lower IES-R scores. The results illuminate several relationships between demographic and psychological characteristics and data-breach-induced stress that should be investigated further.