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Call to claim your prize: Perceived benefits and risk drive intention to comply in a mass marketing scam.

Call to claim your prize: Perceived benefits and risk drive intention to comply in a mass marketing scam.
Call to claim your prize: Perceived benefits and risk drive intention to comply in a mass marketing scam.
Mass marketing scams extract an enormous toll, yet the literature on scams is just emerging. In Experiment 1, 211 adults reviewed a solicitation and rated their intention of contacting an “activation number” for a prize. Scarcity and authority were manipulated. Many (48.82%) indicated some willingness to contact to “activate” the winnings. Intention of responding was inversely related to the perception of risk (b = −.441, p < .001) and positively associated with perception of benefits (b = .554, p < .001), but not with the experimental condition. In Experiment 2, 291 adults were randomly assigned to one of the three conditions (low, medium, or high activation fee), and were asked to report willingness to contact. Activation fees decreased intent to contact, but percentages remained high (25.70%), with higher perception of risk reducing contact rates (b = −.581, p < .001), and benefit perception increasing intent to contact (b = .381, p < .001). Our studies indicate that consumers are responding to perceived risks and benefits in their decision-making, regardless of persuasion elements used by scammers. In summary, our studies find that consumers with lower levels of education and high perception of benefits are at increased risk for mass marketing scams.
1076-898X
196-206
Wood, Stacey
6cd19b4c-24f8-4610-808e-778f170ede9f
Liu, Pi-ju
79b596f4-d583-4986-bf25-25b2026fdd54
Hanoch, Yaniv
3cf08e80-8bda-4d3b-af1c-46c858aa9f39
Xi, Patricia M.
84e18454-77ab-46a3-aa03-5a99b69ae381
Klapatch, Lukas
86919315-a821-48bd-939f-4a4a81885742
Wood, Stacey
6cd19b4c-24f8-4610-808e-778f170ede9f
Liu, Pi-ju
79b596f4-d583-4986-bf25-25b2026fdd54
Hanoch, Yaniv
3cf08e80-8bda-4d3b-af1c-46c858aa9f39
Xi, Patricia M.
84e18454-77ab-46a3-aa03-5a99b69ae381
Klapatch, Lukas
86919315-a821-48bd-939f-4a4a81885742

Wood, Stacey, Liu, Pi-ju, Hanoch, Yaniv, Xi, Patricia M. and Klapatch, Lukas (2018) Call to claim your prize: Perceived benefits and risk drive intention to comply in a mass marketing scam. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Applied, 24 (2), 196-206. (doi:10.1037/xap0000167).

Record type: Article

Abstract

Mass marketing scams extract an enormous toll, yet the literature on scams is just emerging. In Experiment 1, 211 adults reviewed a solicitation and rated their intention of contacting an “activation number” for a prize. Scarcity and authority were manipulated. Many (48.82%) indicated some willingness to contact to “activate” the winnings. Intention of responding was inversely related to the perception of risk (b = −.441, p < .001) and positively associated with perception of benefits (b = .554, p < .001), but not with the experimental condition. In Experiment 2, 291 adults were randomly assigned to one of the three conditions (low, medium, or high activation fee), and were asked to report willingness to contact. Activation fees decreased intent to contact, but percentages remained high (25.70%), with higher perception of risk reducing contact rates (b = −.581, p < .001), and benefit perception increasing intent to contact (b = .381, p < .001). Our studies indicate that consumers are responding to perceived risks and benefits in their decision-making, regardless of persuasion elements used by scammers. In summary, our studies find that consumers with lower levels of education and high perception of benefits are at increased risk for mass marketing scams.

Text
Psychology of Scams R 11.15.17F inal - Accepted Manuscript
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More information

Accepted/In Press date: 3 February 2018
e-pub ahead of print date: June 2018

Identifiers

Local EPrints ID: 434060
URI: http://eprints.soton.ac.uk/id/eprint/434060
ISSN: 1076-898X
PURE UUID: ca69cafd-839a-45e7-8623-fdb6917f1e3a
ORCID for Yaniv Hanoch: ORCID iD orcid.org/0000-0001-9453-4588

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Date deposited: 11 Sep 2019 16:30
Last modified: 16 Mar 2024 04:01

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Contributors

Author: Stacey Wood
Author: Pi-ju Liu
Author: Yaniv Hanoch ORCID iD
Author: Patricia M. Xi
Author: Lukas Klapatch

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