Propensity to click on suspicious links: Impact of gender, of age, and of personality traits

Abstract

There already exists a certain, not huge, body of knowledge about impact of personality traits on susceptibility to phishing. But there is a gap when it comes specifically to phishing with links pretending to lead to deal sites. The paper analyzes if gender, age and personality traits influence such behavior. Big Five Inventory traits (extraversion, agreeableness, conscientiousness, neuroticism, openness to experience) and narcissism were used. Impact of openness to experience was significant at 0.05 level, and of narcissism 0.1 level. Significance of remaining independent variables was above 0.1. Openness to experience was linked positively linked to responsible behavior, narcissism was negatively linked.