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MRIs Show Our Brains Shutting Down When We See Security Prompts

Posted by timothy on from the all-persons-in-this-area-subject-to-palpatio-per-anum dept.

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.

2 of 79 comments (clear)

  1. Information content by Livius · · Score: 4, Interesting

    Obviously their brains will shut down since 99% of 'security' prompts are mere nuisances with no value whatsoever. The brain notices patterns like that pretty quick.

  2. Re:What kind of person did they study? by dcollins117 · · Score: 5, Interesting

    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?

    Hold on, TFA says they note a decrease in visual processing. Perhaps the decrease in visual processing is because the user is using another part of their brain to process the new information, and to appropriately decide what the best response is.

    They also note an "overall" decrease after repeated exposures to the same message, but that's what we do; we learn from experience. That's a feature, not a bug.