Abstract

An important segment of information security research has focused on improving security protocols by encouraging protective behaviors in users of information technology. Intervention based research focused on changing users’ responses to threat appraisals is informed by protection motivation theory (PMT). The present study proposed a model of the relationship between college students’ threat perceptions, their level of anxiety and an adaptive coping response, here conceived as a behavioral intention to learn about phishing. Partial least squares structural equation modeling was used to empirically test a model of college users’ response to perceived phishing threat and the relationship to their coping appraisal. We find that perceived detection threat negatively influenced detection efficacy and positively influenced anxiety, as expected. We did not find a relationship between detection efficacy and anxiety, nor did we find a positive relationship between anxiety and behavioral intention towards an adaptive coping response. The absence of a relationship between anxiety, efficacy, and behavioral intention is at odds with the main assumption of fear-based drive-reduction theories, that fear reduction induces protection motivation. Although we cannot rule out other coping responses such as emotion- or avoidance-based coping without experimental intervention, it remains unclear how distinct such coping behaviors are in practice.