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PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to investigate the behaviour response of computer users when either phishing e‐mails or genuine e‐mails arrive in their inbox. The paper describes how this research was conducted and presents and discusses the findings.Design/methodology/approachThis study was a scenario‐based role‐play experiment that involved the development of a web‐based questionnaire that was only accessible by invited participants when they attended a one‐hour, facilitated session in a computer laboratory.FindingsThe findings indicate that overall, genuine e‐mails were managed better than phishing e‐mails. However, informed participants managed phishing e‐mails better than not‐informed participants. Other findings show how familiarity with computers, cognitive impulsivity and personality traits affect behavioural responses to both types of e‐mail.Research limitations/implicationsThis study does not claim to evaluate actual susceptibility to phishing emails. The subjects were University students and therefore the conclusions are not necessarily representative of the general population of e‐mail users.Practical implicationsThe outcomes of this research would assist management in their endeavours to improve computer user behaviour and, as a result, help to mitigate risks to their organisational information systems.Originality/valueThe literature review indicates that this paper addresses a genuine gap in the research.

Little research has been carried out on human performance in optimization problems, such as the Traveling Salesman problem (TSP). Studies by Polivanova (1974, Voprosy Psikhologii, 4, 41-51) and by MacGregor and Ormerod (1996, Perception & Psychophysics, 58, 527-539) suggest that: (1) the complexity of solutions to visually presented TSPs depends on the number of points on the convex hull; and (2) the perception of optimal structure is an innate tendency of the visual system, not subject to individual differences. Results are reported from two experiments. In the first, measures of the total length and completion speed of pathways, and a measure of path uncertainty were compared with optimal solutions produced by an elastic net algorithm and by several heuristic methods. Performance was also compared under instructions to draw the shortest or the most attractive pathway. In the second, various measures of performance were compared with scores on Raven's advanced progressive matrices (APM). The number of points on the convex hull did not determine the relative optimality of solutions, although both this factor and the total number of points influenced solution speed and path uncertainty. Subjects' solutions showed appreciable individual differences, which had a strong correlation with APM scores. The relation between perceptual organization and the process of solving visually presented TSPs is briefly discussed, as is the potential of optimization for providing a conceptual framework for the study of intelligence.