Investigating Students’ Cyber Security Behaviors in Relation to Big Five Personality Traits and Other Various Variables

The aim of this study is to examine the cyber security behaviors of university students according to the five factor personality traits and the variables of gender, grade, department, status of receiving information security training and weekly internet usage. 420 students from different universities, departments and grades participated in the study. This study was conducted according to descriptive, correlational and causal comparative research models. The data were collected using Personal Information Form developed by the researchers, Personal Cyber Security Provision Scale and Big Five Personality Traits Scale. Pearson correlation coefficient, independent samples t-test and one-way analysis of variance (ANOVA) were used to analyze the data. Findings indicated that students' levels of cyber security behavior were at an acceptable level. Moreover, while students considered themselves as agreeable, conscientious, and open to experience, they remained neutral in deciding whether they were extroverted and neurotic. Furthermore, the students' cyber safety behaviors showed a significant relationship with all five factor personality dimensions, namely, openness to experience, conscientiousness, agreeableness, neuroticism and extroversion. Openness to experience has been identified as the personality trait with strongest relationship with cyber security behaviors, whereas extroversion has the weakest. In addition, the students from CEIT and computer programming departments, those in the 3rd and 4th grades, those who received information security training and those using the internet 6-10 hours weekly were found to be more adequate in terms of cyber security behavior levels. At the end of the study, in the light of these findings, it was suggested to emphasize the cyber security trainings and to consider the personality traits of the students in these trainings