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Resilience and behavior change in cybercrime victimization : usefulness of nudges in preventing individuals to mindlessly accept third-party tracking cookies

Wolters, F. (2022) Resilience and behavior change in cybercrime victimization : usefulness of nudges in preventing individuals to mindlessly accept third-party tracking cookies.

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Abstract:The current experimental research studied whether different manipulations in the layout of cookie banners could lead to a reduced acceptance of tracking cookies in internet users in Europe, as four years ago the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) was enacted. Based on the protection-motivation theory, Dual Processing Model, as well as the concept of inattentional blindness we created an exemplary cookie banner to which we added three manipulations in different constellations to the banners. Those included an informative text that should influence the threat appraisal of participants, a third button allowing the participants to easily decline cookie usage and the addition of color to the preferred response option to nudge participants towards choosing this option. In total eight cookie banners that differed in the composition of manipulations were shown to the participants who were instructed to rate their likeliness to accept cookie usage for each banner. In the analyzed sample (N=101, Mage=23.4, SDage=7.101) we found that each of the three manipulations had a significant negative effect on the likeliness of participants to click on accept. Moreover, we found that the effect of the manipulations increased the more different manipulations were present in a banner simultaneously. These mechanisms that can nudge users towards a certain choice should be carefully applied to achieve a safer behavior in internet users thus, lower cookie acceptance. Finally, it should be researched further how to counteract malicious use of these mechanisms and determined who is responsible for the enforcement of more secure tracking cookie regulations as this is crucial in making internet interaction safer for users.
Item Type:Essay (Bachelor)
Faculty:BMS: Behavioural, Management and Social Sciences
Subject:77 psychology
Programme:Psychology BSc (56604)
Link to this item:https://purl.utwente.nl/essays/91406
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