Beyond Fear and Frustration - Towards a Holistic Understanding of Emotions in Cybersecurity

Employees play a pivotal role for organizational cybersecurity, making understanding the human factor in the context of cybersecurity a critical necessity. While much is known about cognitive factors, less is known about the role of emotions. Through a qualitative survey (N = 112) and in-depth interviews (N = 26), we holistically investigate the causes, types and consequences of emotions in the context of cybersecurity. We demonstrate the existence of diverse, even conflicting emotions at the same time and classify these emotions based on the circumplex model of affect. Furthermore, our findings reveal that essential causes for cybersecurity-related emotions include individual, interpersonal and organizational factors. We also discover various cybersecurity-relevant consequences across behavioral, cognitive and social dimensions. Based on our findings, we provide a framework that unravels the complexity, impact and spill-over effects of cybersecurity-related emotions. Finally, we provide recommendations for promoting secure behavior with a human-centered lens, mitigating negative tendencies, and safeguarding users from unfavorable spill-over effects.