How Task Familiarity and Cognitive Predispositions Impact Behavior in a Security Game of Timing

ABSTRACT. This paper addresses security and safety choices that involve a decision on the timing of an action, either on a short- or a long-term scale. Examples of such decisions include when to make backups, when to patch, when to update passwords, or when to check the correctness of personal financial account information. We effectively combine survey measures with economic experiments to better understand how performance in timing-related security situations is shaped by individuals' cognitive predispositions. Our work is aimed to explore timing-relevant cognitive biases and to eventually develop strategies to help decision-makers with behavioral intervention strategies. Two behavioral experiments are presented in which the timing of online security actions is the critical decision-making factor. We distinguish between visual feedback and estimation (Experiment 1) and purely temporal estimation (Experiment 2). Using psychometric scales, we investigate the role of individual difference variables, specifically risk propensity and need for cognition. The analysis is based on the data from over 450 participants and a careful statistical methodology. Risk propensity is not a hindrance in timing tasks. Participants of average risk propensity generally benefit from a reflective disposition (high need for cognition), particularly when visual feedback is given. Overall, participants benefit from need for cognition; in the more difficult, temporal-estimation task, this requires task experience.