Threatening messages aimed to prevent digital piracy have the opposite effect if you're a man, a new study from the University of Portsmouth has found. According to the research, women tend to respond positively to this kind of messaging, but men typically increase their piracy behaviors by 18%.
I imagine for a lot of people an anti piracy campaign simply serves to alert them that piracy is possible and apparently so common and easy that everybody else must be doing it. They probably walk away curious about learning a new hobby more than fearing the consequences.
I like to call it the D.A.R.E. Effect.