Impact of Information Seeking and Warning Frames on Online Deception: A Quasi-Experiment

As the World Wide Web grows, the number and variety of online deceptive attacks likewise increases. Extant research examines online deception from an information processing perspective. However, users' ability to process information is partly based on their information seeking modes. Information seeking has not been well studied in the security domain. Accordingly, this study explores the effect of users' information seeking modes on their deception detection behavior. Specifically, we propose that human information needs and the framing of important information such as warnings significantly impact users' vulnerability to online deception. Results suggest that users are more vulnerable to deception when they are actively seeking information compared with when seeking information passively and that warning frames have a positive effect on users' attitude toward dealing with online deception. The findings also suggest that users' attitudes and behaviors are not aligned.