How people judge cyber threats, measured as they decide.
The CARE Behavioral Lab runs browser-based studies of security decisions such as spotting phishing, judging links, and responding to suspicious calls. Each study records the answer and how the person arrived at it (timing, hesitation, where attention went), so we can study the decision process rather than only its outcome.
Studies
Email judgment demo
Judge two emails and a link, explain one decision, and see what the lab records. About three minutes.
Security alert verification
Four weekly sessions of security alert triage, with and without an AI assistant. Participants sign in with the access code from their invitation.
Live studies appear here once they have IRB approval. Participants reach them through a study link with their own ID.
What a study can record
Timing
Time on each item, delay before the first move, idle pauses, and when answers were given.
Pointer
Sampled cursor path, speed, direction changes, clicks, and how long the pointer rested on links, headers, and options.
Answer changes
Every change to a response, not just the final choice, including confidence adjustments.
Typing rhythm
Keystroke timing, deletions, and paste events. The lab records the kind of key (letter, space, delete), never the key itself.
Attention
Time the tab was hidden, window focus loss, scrolling, and window resizing.
Media
For audio or video stimuli: delay before playing, share of the clip heard, replays, and seeks.
Webcam modules (gaze and facial expression) are planned as an opt-in add-on for studies that need them. They will compute features in the browser and will not upload video.
Data and privacy
- Nothing is recorded before a participant gives consent on the study's first page.
- The lab never records which keys were pressed, and never uses the camera or microphone unless a study asks for it and the participant agrees.
- Live studies store data only where the approved IRB protocol says, under a study ID rather than a name.
- The demo stores nothing: its data stays in the browser tab and disappears when the tab closes.