A Cognitive Map of People´s Online Risk Perceptions and Attitudes: An Empirical Study

This research studied online risk perceptions under the well known psychometric paradigm. We developed a taxonomy of risks appropriate for e-commerce along with variables to characterize risks and understand risk perceptions. A pilot study with 153 subjects was used to collect data on which factor analysis was conducted to identify online risk dimensions and produce a factor space diagram. This diagram represents a "cognitive map" of people\´s online risk perceptions and attitudes. Results suggested that subjects distinguish risks using four dimensions: direness of consequences, ability to control or avoid risks, observability/immediacy of risk consequences, and unfamiliarity of risks. A larger study is underway based on the results of the pilot study. The findings of this research study help researchers to understand and predict people\´s reaction to risks posed by online hazards. In addition, this study attempted to transfer a proven and popular methodology of risk perception research, the psychometric paradigm, to a new domain, e-commerce. Moreover, this study added empirical data regarding online risk perceptions to the existing body of the relevant academic research.