What Do Users Feel? Towards Affective EEG Correlates of Cybersecurity Notifications

Abstract

Security notifications attempt to change risky computer usage behaviour but often fail to achieve their desired effect. Though there are likely many causes for this phenomenon, information systems researchers have posited that emotional reactions to security notifications may play a role in its explanation. This work-in-progress paper descibes a study to create a baseline of electroencephalographic (EEG) and behavioral responses to security notification images by comparing them to known responses to the well-studied International Affective Picture System (IAPS). By creating such a baseline of affective responses to security notification images, future work can explore the effect of passive emotional reactions to security notification designs which would generate insight into effective design practices.