The Role of Self-Control in Information Security Violations: Insights from a Cognitive Neuroscience Perspective

Abstract

Self-control has been identified as a major factor influencing individual behavior in the social science, neuroscience, criminology, and information security literatures. In this study, we first developed and validated a novel paradigm suitable for use with event-related potentials (ERPs) in scenario-based laboratory experiments of decision making in the context of information security. We then used this paradigm to examine the association between individual differences in self-control and ERPs elicited while individuals deliberated over violations of information security policies. Our results show that the left and right hemispheres of the brain were involved in decision making, and that the participants with low self-control had lower levels of neural recruitment in both hemispheres relative to those with high self-control. This was especially the case for regions in or near the dorsal lateral prefrontal cortex (DLPFC) and inferior frontal cortex (IFC). These results extend the findings in neuroscience literature related to the role of self-control in decision making in general, and validate a new paradigm for use with the electroencephalography/event-related potentials (EEG/ERP) technique to examine theoretical questions in information security and criminology research.

Key words and phrases:

• information security
• neuroscience
• self-control
• policy compliance
• neural correlates
• electroencephalography (EEG)
• event-related potentials (ERPs)
• NeuroIS

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Qing Hu

Qing Hu is the Union Pacific Professor in Information Systems and associate dean for graduate programs and research in the College of Business at Iowa State University. He received his Ph.D. from the University of Miami. His research primarily focuses on the impact of information technology on organizational strategy, culture, security, and performance. His work has been published in leading academic journals, including Information Systems Research, Journal of Management Information Systems, MIS Quarterly, Journal of the AIS, Communications of the ACM, California Management Review, Decision Sciences, IEEE Transactions on Software Engineering, European Journal of Information Systems, and Information Systems Journal. He has served as special issue associate editor for MIS Quarterly and European Journal of Information Systems and on the editorial board of Journal of the AIS.

Robert West

Robert West is a professor of psychology at Iowa State University. He completed a doctoral degree in experimental psychology at the University of South Carolina and postdoctoral training in cognitive neuroscience at the Rotman Research Institute in Toronto. He is a fellow of the Association for Psychological Science and the Psychonomic Society. His research uses event-related brain potential and behavioral techniques to examine the neural basis of selective attention, cognitive control, and feedback processing in healthy younger and older adults. His work has been published in leading academic journals, including Psychological Bulletin, Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience, Neuropsychologia, and Cerebral Cortex. He has served as associate editor of the Journal of Gerontology: Psychological Sciences and on the editorial board of several other journals, including Neuropsychology and Psychology and Aging.

Laura Smarandescu

Laura Smarandescu is an assistant professor of marketing in the College of Business at Iowa State University. She is also on the faculty in the Human Computer Interaction Graduate Program. She received her Ph.D. from the University of South Carolina. She is a member of the interdisciplinary organization Society for Judgment and Decision Making. Her research area is judgment and decision making, and focuses on the effect of environment and individual personality characteristics on decision making and behavior. Her work has been published in leading academic journals in marketing and prevention science, including Psychology and Marketing, Journal of Advertising Research, Marketing Letters, Marketing Science Institute, Substance Use and Misuse, and International Journal of Drug Policy.