Learning from Security Failures: The Roles of Psychological Safety and Mild Fear

Learning from mistakes and failures is of paramount importance to today\u27s information workers and cybersecurity task force members when they confront ever-growing signs of cyber foes. However, Information Systems (IS) security literature offers limited insights into this phenomenon. Few studies, either theoretical or empirical, shed light on the mechanism of learning from security failures at the individual level. Moreover, the existing research has primarily focused on the deterrent effect of fear and overlooked the promoting effect of mild fear that could augment human cognitive functions, thereby enhancing their learning efficacy. Informed by cross-paradigmatic underpinnings, this study proposes a research model elucidating how the presence of moderate fear stimuli, in conjunction with psychological safety, may boost learning performance and thus positively affect the security coping intention and behavior of information workers. The model also juxtaposes individual factors with environmental factors to leverage cross-level viewpoints. Research methods and expected contributions are discusse