Protection motivation and cybersecurity intentions: a visual conjoint experiment

Abstract Objectives Develop a visual conjoint survey experiment to identify the ecological correlates of users’ cybersecurity intentions in digital space. This study also sought to disentangle the influences of protection motivation when measured as voluntary compliance and as intrinsic motivation to protect oneself. Methods A nationwide sample of US adults were presented with three hypothetical webpages displaying randomized attributes signaling potential security risks. Respondents were then randomly presented with three security recommendations to determine protection motivation. Results Participants were undeterred by visual features of the webpages. Intrinsic motivation was influenced by the effectiveness of the security recommendation and confidence in using it. Willingness to comply was primarily influenced by the perceived time cost of engaging in security recommendations. Discussion When complying with a recommendation, response cost is particularly salient, while effectiveness of protective behaviors is more strongly related to intrinsic motivation. These findings point to crucial takeaways for cybersecurity training.