Ransomware and the Robin Hood effect?: Experimental evidence on Americans' willingness to support cyber-extortion

Objectives

Ransomware attacks have become a critical security threat worldwide. However, existing research on ransomware has largely ignored public opinion. This initial study identifies patterns in the American public's support for the use of ransomware, specifically when it is framed to provide benefits to others (i.e., in-group members). Drawing on the Robin Hood decision-making literature and Moral Foundations Theory, we offer theoretical predictions regarding ransomware support.

Methods

In a survey of 1013 Americans, we embedded a split-ballot experiment in which respondents were randomly assigned to indicate their level of support or opposition to one of two sets of six ransomware scenarios. We manipulated the nationality, authority level, and political affiliation of the actors.

Results

We find that people are more supportive of ransomware use when the actors are from their own in-group, and the outcomes benefit their in-group members. Also, the more strongly participants endorsed the moral foundations of authority and harm/care, the more supportive they were of the use of ransomware that may benefit others from their in-group.

Conclusions

These findings suggest political actors may be able to generate public support for morally questionable actions by emphasizing in-group benefits and the Robin Hood nature of an attack (e.g., outcome-based morality).

The “Real Self” and Inauthenticity: The Importance of Self-Concept Anchorage for Emotional Experiences in the Workplace

I examine the utility of self-concept anchorage (as described by Turner 1976) in the analysis of inauthenticity in the workplace. As controlling internally felt emotion may distance the worker from her true feelings or true self, the management of emotion in the workplace can produce feelings of inauthenticity in the worker. This relationship has been demonstrated in previous research. However, as noted by some researchers, the relationship between emotion management and inauthenticity assumes that workers experience spontaneous, unmanaged emotions as representative of their true self (an impulsive orientation to emotion). I analyze a worker's self-concept orientation as a moderator of the relationship between emotion management in the workplace and feelings of inauthenticity. The results reveal the importance of considering self-concept anchorage in analyses of inauthenticity in the workplace; however, the effect appears at the level of emotional feeling rather than display.

Should identification audiometry include a screening for depression among residents of upper socioeconomic retirement centers?

40 older residents living in three upper socioeconomic retirement centers were screened for hearing loss, hearing handicap, and depression. Those participants who showed loss on the hearing screening or the hearing handicap screening were no more likely to score as depressive on the Geriatric Depression Scale than were those who showed no loss on screening. Results suggest that hearing loss and depression should be routinely but independently monitored in settings with affluent older adult residents.