It has been found that men tend to increase their hacking behavior after seeing messages containing threats of lawsuits and other negative consequences. Anti-piracy messages tend to have the desired effect on women.

Details of the study

Scientists from the University of Portsmouth in England say that this study shows that: The importance of different types of messages to different peopleand it also shows how important the tone of such campaigns is.

We already know that there are many gender differences in piracy, as men are more prone to piracy than women; they see it as more acceptable and less risky.
– says Kate Whitman, a researcher on people’s economic behavior from the University of Portsmouth.

The study, which included 962 adult participants, used three different types of messages: two threatening campaigns that talked about the legal and security implications of digital piracy, and one campaign that was more educational and pro-social in nature.

During educational messages had no noticeable impact on the level of piracy, more aggressive and threatening, caused significantly different reactions among representatives of both sexes. The most threatening message led to an 18 percent increase in piracy among men and a 52 percent decrease among women.

“Research shows that anti-piracy messages may unintentionally increase piracy, a phenomenon known as psychological reactivity. According to evolutionary psychology, men react more strongly to threats to their freedom and therefore act in the opposite direction.”– says Whitman.

This isn’t the first study to suggest that anti-piracy messages lead to increased piracy. The results of the experiments also showed that those who were currently the most pro-privacy advocates showed the biggest difference in their intention to increase the amount of pirated content after seeing anti-piracy messages.

To reduce this number, researchers say media companies need to think about how they communicate with people about this issue. Threatening messages may be the most dramatic option, but they may not be the most effective.

In conclusion, this study shows that: There is a need for an individual approach to anti-piracy messageshowever, unless the messages can be precisely targeted to a specific gender, it is best to avoid them as they can lead to a rapid increase in hacking.