Third-person perception of cybersecurity risks and its influence on government employees’ cybersecurity compliance and policy recommendations

Drawing from the Third-Person Effect (TPE) framework, this study investigates the cybersecurity perceptions and compliance practices of provincial-level government employees in Vietnam. Results from structural equation modeling revealed that, together with a few traditional antecedents of TPE, participants' third-person perception (TPP) was a modest but statistically significant predictor of their behavioral responses (e.g., policy recommendations and cybersecurity compliance), extending the applicability of this theoretical model to a new domain while also revealing its boundary conditions. However, the antecedents demonstrated more predictive power on the behavioral rather than the perceptual component within this framework. The theoretical and practical implications of this study are discussed in the context of increasing cybersecurity risks and the importance of human factors in preventing cyberattacks within the government sector.