The Impact of Choice Overload on Decision Deferral in Cybersecurity

Abstract

Since a large area of cybersecurity research is technically centered but most cyber incidents are human enabled (Nobles, 2018), a shift in focus towards behavioral issues is imperative to improve the understanding of these problems. Research in behavioral economics shows that cognitive biases can impact the decision-making process. For example, a seminal study conducted by Iyengar and Lepper (2000) reveals that a large array of product options attracted customers to browse, but fewer choices got them to buy. Similar research shows that when presented with a large array of options, customers tend to defer decisions, search for alternatives, or even opt not to choose (Dhar, 1997; Shafir, Simonson and Tversky, 1993). Choice overload bias, also known as over-choice, choice paralysis, or the paradox of choice, describes how individuals get overwhelmed when presented with a large number of options to choose from. While we tend to assume that more choice is a good thing (Ryan and Deci, 2001), behavioral economics related research has shown that people have a harder time choosing from a larger array of options (Chernev, Böckenholt and Goodman, 2015). This study translates extant behavioral economics based research on choice overload from various disciplines (e.g., business, public administration, medical science, sociology) and explores its impact on cybersecurity.