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. 2020 Sep 30;11:1755. doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2020.01755

Table 2.

Summary of the five newly proposed principles of persuasion that would better represent the psychological vulnerabilities exploited by social engineering cyberattacks (Ferreira et al., 2015).

Principle Description
Authority Obeying pretense of authority or performing a favor for an authority.
Social Proof Mimicking behavior of the majority of people.
Liking, Similarity, and Deception (LSD) Obeying someone a victim knows/likes, or someone similar to the victim, or someone a victim finds attractive.
Commitment, Reciprocity, and Consistency (CRC) Making a victim act as committed, assuring consistency between saying and doing, or returning a favor.
Distraction Focusing on what a victim can gain, need, or lose/miss out.