Perceived Risk

---

The Web is a new commercial medium, and consumers often perceive risks associated with its use, although these may have been over-emphasized (Ben-Ur and Winfield, 2003). Thus, any model of Web search behavior that includes on-line decision-making should include perceived risk as a variable. Individuals with a high level of perceived risk are apprehensive about the relevant purchase decision. There may thus be a tendency to offset their perceived risk by gathering more information. However, the level of risk perceived by an individual is not only an underlying personal characteristic, it is also affected by the nature of the purchase decision task at hand. For example, Murray (1991) refers to differences in the inherent perceived risks between goods and services causing differences in search behavior for these categories of goods.

---