Insight into risk-taking behaviours online through group membership based on warmth and competence

Abstract

An important problem that the society is facing nowadays relates to cyber-criminality. The attacks on the internet accumulate, notably because of a general disregard towards basic safety recommendations. Why do web users fail to embrace the security measures and in turn, put themselves at risk? This master thesis tackles this question by trying to enhance understanding of online risk-taking. More specifically, the study explores the possible impact of group membership on online risk-taking. By manipulating the group in which participants are categorized in and by controlling relevant variables, the influence on online risk-taking was expected to be captured at its best. The groups varied in their depiction of warmth and competence. Identification of the group was examined, and seven variables were considered as control variables, including gender, online trust, optimistic bias - perceived online controllability and perceived online vulnerability -, promotion pride, prevention pride and narcissism. However, this main hypothesis does not appear to be significant. Nonetheless, secondary findings from the controlled variables provide interesting keys for future research. Notably, women were found to take more risks online than men. It also appears that participants displayed an optimistic bias, suggesting that they found themselves less at risk than others on the internet. This exploration might be a starting point for the exploration of online risk-taking through group membership. Furthermore, the possible improvements to this research give hope for the future. Indeed, it seems important to highlight findings that could be applied in the cyber-environment in order to enhance safety behaviours and to design efficient prevention programs.