Volume 10 - Issue 1
Examining the Relationship between Threat and Coping Appraisal in Phishing Detection among College Students
- David J. Lemay
McGill University, Quebec, Canada
david.lemay@mail.mcgill.ca
- Ram B. Basnet
Colorado Mesa University, Colorado, USA
rbasnet@coloradomesa.edu
- Tenzin Doleck
University of Southern California, California, USA
tenzin.doleck@mail.mcgill.ca
Keywords: Threat and Coping Appraisal, Phishing, Phishing Detection, College Students, Behavioral Intentions
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.