Is this a Joke? The Impact of Message Manipulations on Risk Perceptions.

As we are continually confronted with increasingly sophisticated electronic messages, distinguishing messages that are valid from irrelevant, malicious, or otherwise undeserving of the recipient's attention has become an extremely important task. The present study leverages the lens of information manipulation theory (IMT) to analyze the impact of perceived message quality and quantity on perceived source competence and message honesty, and their subsequent impact on perceived risk, which is an individual's assessment of the potential harm that could result from accepting a deceitful message as valid. We administered phishing scenarios to subjects and evaluated their responses to survey items related to the given scenario. The data indicate that perceived message honesty, third-party support, and technology anxiety influence risk perceptions of a message. In addition, message quality, as defined by IMT, strongly influences individual perceptions of honesty.