A promise is a promise the effect of commitment devices on computer security intentions

Alisa Frik; Nathan Malkin; Marian Harbach; Eyal Peer; Serge Egelman

doi:10.1145/3290605.3300834

A promise is a promise the effect of commitment devices on computer security intentions

Alisa Frik, Nathan Malkin, Marian Harbach, Eyal Peer, Serge Egelman

Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceeding › Conference contribution › peer-review

12 Scopus citations

Abstract

Commitment devices are a technique from behavioral economics that have been shown to mitigate the effects of present bias—the tendency to discount future risks and gains in favor of immediate gratifications. In this paper, we explore the feasibility of using commitment devices to nudge users towards complying with varying online security mitigations. Using two online experiments, with over 1,000 participants total, we offered participants the option to be reminded or to schedule security tasks in the future. We find that both reminders and commitment nudges can increase users’ intentions to install security updates and enable two-factor authentication, but not to configure automatic backups. Using qualitative data, we gain insights into the reasons for postponement and how to improve future nudges. We posit that current nudges may not live up to their full potential, as the timing options offered to users may be too rigid.

Original language	English
Title of host publication	CHI 2019 - Proceedings of the 2019 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems
Publisher	Association for Computing Machinery
ISBN (Electronic)	9781450359702
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1145/3290605.3300834
State	Published - 2 May 2019
Externally published	Yes
Event	2019 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems, CHI 2019 - Glasgow, United Kingdom Duration: 4 May 2019 → 9 May 2019

Publication series

Name	Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems - Proceedings

Conference

Conference	2019 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems, CHI 2019
Country/Territory	United Kingdom
City	Glasgow
Period	4/05/19 → 9/05/19

Bibliographical note

Publisher Copyright:
© 2019 Copyright held by the owner/author(s).

Funding

This work was made possible by the U.S. National Science Foundation through grants CNS-1528070 and CNS-1817249, the U.S.–Israel Binational Science Foundation through grants 2014626 and 2017751, the Center of Long-Term Cybersecurity (CLTC) at U.C. Berkeley, as well as feedback from Arunesh Mathur and Refjohürs Lykkewe.

Funders	Funder number
National Science Foundation	1817249
United States-Israel Binational Science Foundation	2014626, 2017751
National Science Foundation	CNS-1528070, CNS-1817249

Keywords

Behavioral economics
Commitment devices
Decision-making
Nudges
Usable security

Access to Document

10.1145/3290605.3300834

Cite this

Frik, A., Malkin, N., Harbach, M., Peer, E., & Egelman, S. (2019). A promise is a promise the effect of commitment devices on computer security intentions. In CHI 2019 - Proceedings of the 2019 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems (Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems - Proceedings). Association for Computing Machinery. https://doi.org/10.1145/3290605.3300834

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Frik, A, Malkin, N, Harbach, M, Peer, E & Egelman, S 2019, A promise is a promise the effect of commitment devices on computer security intentions. in CHI 2019 - Proceedings of the 2019 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems. Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems - Proceedings, Association for Computing Machinery, 2019 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems, CHI 2019, Glasgow, United Kingdom, 4/05/19. https://doi.org/10.1145/3290605.3300834

A promise is a promise the effect of commitment devices on computer security intentions. / Frik, Alisa; Malkin, Nathan; Harbach, Marian et al.
CHI 2019 - Proceedings of the 2019 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems. Association for Computing Machinery, 2019. (Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems - Proceedings).

Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceeding › Conference contribution › peer-review

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A promise is a promise the effect of commitment devices on computer security intentions

Abstract

Publication series

Conference

Bibliographical note

Funding

Keywords

Access to Document

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