Ransomware victims must decide quickly whether to pay, yet the emotional dynamics of this decision are not well understood. We report the results of a pre-registered between subjects vignette experiment with a nationwide U.S. adult sample testing how ransomware notes shape such emotions as fear, anger, guilt, and shame, and how these responses relate to stated willingness to pay. Participants were randomly assigned to a neutral policy frame, or a ransomware note, and we additionally compare locked files versus stolen data threats. Results show clear differences between threat messaging and the neutral policy condition in both emotional responses and payment intentions. The locked versus stolen contrast affected the emotions only.
Vakhitova et al. (Tue,) studied this question.