Discovering the interplay between defensive avoidance and continued use intention of anti-malware software among experienced home users: A moderated mediation model

Dismissing or disregarding security notifications (defensive avoidance) may lead to inactive use of anti-malware, compromising the effective protection of home computers. Nevertheless, few studies have investigated the cognitive and behavioral mechanisms initiated by defensive avoidance in users. Motivated thus, we propose a moderated mediation model that depicts users’ cognitive and behavioral mechanisms initiated by defensive avoidance, as well as the moderation role of perceived vulnerability and user involvement. Our results show that perceived vulnerability and user involvement may moderate a biased cognitive mediation process between defensive avoidance and future behavioral intention.