Security awareness message effectiveness does vary based on personality, but not always as one would expect. Depending on certain personality traits, some security messages appear beneficial to security efforts, whereas other personality traits make the individual less receptive to certain message types and therefore security messages may backfire in terms of achieving their intended effect.
| Construct | Cites | Category | Questions given? | Content validity | Pretests | Response type | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| openness | John et al., 1991 | Big Five | yes | no | none | 7-point likert scale ranging from "strongly disagree" to "strongly agree" | |
| conscientiousness | John et al., 1991 | Big Five | yes | no | none | 7-point likert scale ranging from "strongly disagree" to "strongly agree" | |
| extraversion | John et al., 1991 | Big Five | yes | no | none | 7-point likert scale ranging from "strongly disagree" to "strongly agree" | |
| agreeableness | John et al., 1991 | Big Five | yes | no | none | 7-point likert scale ranging from "strongly disagree" to "strongly agree" | |
| neuroticism | John et al., 1991 | Big Five | yes | no | none | 7-point likert scale ranging from "strongly disagree" to "strongly agree" | |
| Machiavellianism | Christie, 1970 | yes | no | none | 7-point likert scale ranging from "strongly disagree" to "strongly agree" | ||
| Social desirability | Hays et al., 1989 | yes | no | none | 7-point likert scale ranging from "strongly disagree" to "strongly agree" | ||
| effectiveness of security awareness themes | NEW | yes | no | none | 7-point likert scale ranging from "strongly disagree" to "strongly agree" | ||
| computer security knowledge | NEW | yes | no | none | 7-point Likert scale ranging from "extremely poor" to "excellent" |
Mitchell Kajzer, John D'Arcy, Charles R. Crowell, Aaron Striegel, and Dirk Van Bruggen. An exploratory investigation of message-person congruence in information security awareness campaigns. Computers & security, 43:64–76, 2014. doi:10.1108/ICS-12-2015-0048.
@article{kajzer_exploratory_2014,
author = {Kajzer, Mitchell and D'Arcy, John and Crowell, Charles R. and Striegel, Aaron and Van Bruggen, Dirk},
doi = {10.1108/ICS-12-2015-0048},
journal = {Computers \& security},
pages = {64--76},
title = {An Exploratory Investigation of Message-Person Congruence in Information Security Awareness Campaigns},
volume = {43},
year = {2014}
}