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?

[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?

[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."

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.