Effects of Recipient Information and Urgency Cues on Phishing Detection

Phishing causes significant economic damage and erodes consumer trust in business communication. To better filter phishing emails, researchers have paid a substantial amount of attention to the characteristics of phishing emails. This study focused on the effects of recipient information and urgency cues on phishing detection. A total of 518 participants performed role-playing tasks in which they needed to discriminate legitimate emails and phishing emails. The results showed that the main effects of urgency cues and recipient information were significant. Under the condition of time constraints, the likelihood of replying to the phishing emails increased, and the likelihood of searching for the relevant information decreased. When recipient information was added to the phishing emails, the likelihood of replying to the phishing emails decreased, and the likelihood of deleting the phishing emails and searching the for relevant information increased. Meanwhile, the interaction effect of recipient information and time pressure was also significant. When recipient information was added to the phishing emails, the urgency cues had a significant negative effect on the detection behaviors. Under the condition of time constraints and recipient information addition, the likelihood of replying to the phishing emails increased, and the likelihood of deleting the phishing emails and searching for the relevant information decreased. These findings showed that phishing email characteristics strongly affect phishing susceptibility. A sense of urgency resulted in stress and impulsive behavior, and thus, the participants preferred quickly respond and perform less research. By exploring the mechanism underlying phishing processing, this study deepens the understanding of detecting deception and motivates more effective strategies or assistance systems to protect individuals from online fraud.