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Social and Behavioral Modeling for a Trustworthy Cyberspace: A Research Framework
Conference proceeding

Social and Behavioral Modeling for a Trustworthy Cyberspace: A Research Framework

Guillermo A. Francia and Todd L. McKerchar
Proceedings of International Symposium on Psychology and Behavior in China’s Social Transformation under the Background of Informatization, pp.23-29
International Symposium on Psychology and Behavior in China’s Social Transformation under the Background of Informatization (Jiaxing, Zhejiang, China, 09/18/2015–09/20/2015)
01/01/2015
Web of Science ID: WOS:000374279600003

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Abstract

The ever-increasing dependence of society on the interconnectivity of computing and communicating devices poses serious challenges to government entities, businesses, and individuals. Among these challenges is the protection of critical information a prize that is paramount to both attackers and defenders. In the midst of these two adversaries is the user, who is constantly inundated with choices concerning issues on the risk, motivation, incentives, ethics, and the legality of cybersecurity. In this paper, we propose a research framework on the study of human behavior in risky-choice situations with the ultimate goal of advancing a trustworthy cyberspace. In doing so, we suggest the development of a behavioral model of how users make decisions involving risk in cyberspace and the validation of the model using Agent-Based Modeling (ABM) and simulation. Specifically, we propose the probability-discounting framework an established risky choice procedure in the behavioral sciences to improve our understanding of the decision-making processes involved in risky cyberspace behavior (see Madden & Bickel, 2010, for a review of the discounting framework). Prospect theory (Kahneman & Tversky, 1979) predicts that cyberspace users should be more responsive to conditions involving potential monetary losses than those only involving potential monetary gains.

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