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Cybersecurity is a growing concern for private individuals and professional entities. Reports have shown that the majority of cybersecurity incidents occur because users fail to behave securely. Research on human cybersecurity (HCS) behavior suggests that time pressure is one of the important driving factors behind non-secure HCS behavior. However, there is limited conceptual work to guide researchers and practitioners in this regard. Against this backdrop, we investigate how the impact of time pressure on HCS behavior can be conceptualized within an integrative framework and which countermeasures can be used to reduce its negative impact. Altogether, we conducted 35 interviews with cybersecurity experts, non-security professionals, and private users. The results of our study shed light on the theoretical pathways through which time pressure can affect different types of security behaviors and identify a range of operational, human, technical, and physical countermeasures with important implications for research and practice.

While avatars are frequently employed as a user interface (UI) element for improving user experience in human-computer interaction, the current design of avatars is primarily dominated by non-Arabian cultures. To the best of our knowledge, no previous research or guidelines (based on empirical evidence) can be found for avatar design in the context of Arabian culture. Aiming to address this gap, we conducted an exploratory study to investigate how avatars can be designed for Arab users. Following a hybrid approach of deductive and inductive reasoning, we reviewed the literature on UI design for Arabian culture, (non-Arabian) avatar design in human-computer interaction research, and social response theory. Subsequently, we conducted 32 semi-structured interviews with Arabian culture experts, psychologists, and potential users. Based on thematic analysis of the interviews, we developed a set of six general guidelines for the design of avatars for users from Arabian culture. These six guidelines are expected to provide system or UI designers the ability to design and employ appropriate avatars that can promote Arab users’ experience and engagement.

In many platform-mediated services, people share resources in a way that involves social value beyond mere economic considerations. Considering peer-to-peer accommodation sharing, this paper links booking intentions to hosts’ user representation (UR). We consider how the most common UR artifacts facilitate sharing through social and economic value. Specifically, we differentiate artifacts that (1) convey personal information (e.g., self-descriptions), (2) are provided by exogenous sources (e.g., star ratings), and (3) conflate both of these informational properties (e.g., text reviews). We investigate these factors by means of an online experiment. Our results illustrate the dual property of text reviews and that booking intentions in co-usage sharing are driven by expected social and economic value to about equal extents.

Auction sites on the Internet frequently put bidders under time pressure or highlight the social competition that is inherent to auctions. Both aspects are believed to elicit an exciting shopping experience, which may culminate in auction fever. In two laboratory experiments, we investigate the process of auction fever in retail auctions and demonstrate when and how auction fever affects bidding behavior. In contrast to previous studies, we employ physiological measurements as an objective and continuous assessment of bidders’ arousal in addition to a subjective assessment of bidders’ emotions through psychometric scales. Moreover, we explicitly study the interaction of time pressure and social competition on arousal and bids. We find that bidders’ arousal is increased in high time pressure auctions and that this leads to higher bids in ascending auctions—but only when bidders compete with human opponents. Thus, social competition is the actual driver underlying the auction fever phenomenon. Furthermore, we show that the “joy of winning” is significantly stronger than the “frustration of losing” in ascending auctions. Finally, we discuss the implications of our findings for the design of retail auctions.