Heeding the Messenger: The Influence of Sender Characteristics on Security Message Compliance Intentions
Authors: Schuetz, Sebastian Walter; Bansal, Gaurav; Weng, Qin; Lowry, Paul Benjamin; Thatcher, Jason Bennett
Journal: Information Systems Journal (2026)
DOI: 10.1111/isj.70013
<jats:title>ABSTRACT</jats:title> <jats:p>How security messages can be used to motivate information technology (IT) users' security behaviour has been of keen interest to IS research. To that end, studies have focused on the content of security messages; however, few studies have examined the influence of message senders. In this article, we build on social influence theory and integrate it with the concept of inferences of manipulative intent (IMI) to develop a model that examines how perceptions of sender characteristics—cybersecurity expertise, coercive power, and similarity—can yield positive and negative influence on message outcomes, captured in recipients' message compliance intentions. We test our model in four different studies using field and scenario experiments across three target populations: the general public, students, and employees. Perceived expertise, power, and similarity had similar effects among the general public and students: Perceived expertise was positively associated with message outcomes, but perceived power and similarity were negatively associated. In contrast, employees reacted differently from the general public and students in that they responded…