MRIs Show Our Brains Shutting Down When We See Security Prompts

antdude writes with this excerpt from Ars Technica: Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRIs) show our brains shutting down when we see security prompts. The MRI images show a "precipitous drop" in visual processing after even one repeated exposure to a standard security warning and a "large overall drop" after 13 of them. Previously, such warning fatigue has been observed only indirectly, such as one study finding that only 14 percent of participants recognized content changes to confirmation dialog boxes or another that recorded users clicking through one-half of all SSL warnings in less than two seconds.

Comments

What kind of person did they study?

[ArcadeMan]

Did they test with dumb regular users who don't understand or don't know better, or did they test people who actually know what those security warnings mean and the real consequences of ignoring them?

Re:What kind of person did they study?

[Austerity Empowers]

What is the purpose of security alerts if not to warn people who don't know any better? For the crowd that gets it, you could flash a brief icon featuring a guy fawkes mask and that'd be sufficient. I also wonder how many of them would click "proceed anyway" if the pr0ns were there...

Re:What kind of person did they study?

[duck_rifted]

People in general tend to tune out what they don't understand because they don't have thoughts available to process. We have ALL experienced that -- every last one of us. Doesn't it kind of feel like your brain is busy searching for the right file? Haven't you had instances where you get the same feeling, and then, "Oh yeah!" it clears up? It happens to me any time I'm already preoccupied with something, enter a room for a task, and then get distracted. "Wait... What was I doing?" And it will happen to you with increasingly frequency as you age.

Let's not call people dumb for this. They need to be taught, or security warnings need to engage them better. I mean, come on, can't we do better than a little dialogue box that spews stuff people don't understand? Give people switches and buttons that have an effect they can SEE and they'll get it. A little graphic depicting what they're giving permission to that changes as the mark or clear a checkbox, with a chance to apply after the selection, would work perfectly. Give their brains the file they can't find.

Re:What kind of person did they study?

[khasim]

What is the purpose of security alerts if not to warn people who don't know any better?

To shift the blame to the end-user when something goes wrong.

Which is why the alerts are so useless. They, essentially, become a "click here to continue" button.

Re:What kind of person did they study?

[frinsore]

While I find the study surprising it is disturbingly logical. And I expect the article's solution would only be temporary (making random drastic changes to the prompts). Personally when I receive a windows escalation prompt I've already made the decision to run the program and the prompt just gets in the way of that, I already trust the program or I wouldn't have run it in the first place. Showing the prompt after the user has decided to run the program is already too late. The warning should be shown on the icon, if in a gui, and preferably the application should have a list of privileges that it needs, like android, instead of a generic "everything".

Re:What kind of person did they study?

[suutar]

Android apps request everything anyway. What I want is a way to say "yeah, I know you want this, but you ain't getting it. Install anyway, and the OS will just pretend that function returns nothing."

Drives IT people nuts

[TheReaperD]

I've witnessed this so many times as an IT tech that it's sickening. Even if we're standing there and try explaining it, our words just end up in "don't care" brain bin and they'll click on anything that makes the message go away the fastest. I've even had them click on "yes" then "Ok" on the install even when I was standing there and told them not to. It's like they're "listening" to their mother in law. Irritating as hell.

Re:Drives IT people nuts

[war4peace]

This behavior doesn't have IT roots. It has "the boy who cried wolf" roots.
We're surrounded by warnings, all the time. Warning! Wet floor. Warning! 0.5 inches of snow tomorrow. Warning! This beverage might be hot. Warning! This battery might explode if you put it in a microwave.

No wonder people have their responses to warnings (of all kinds) dulled to non-existence.