scholarly journals Should I judge safety or danger? Perceived risk depends on the question frame

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Matthew Benjamin Stephensen ◽  
Christin Schulze ◽  
Markus Landrø ◽  
Jordy Hendrikx ◽  
Audun Hetland
Keyword(s):  
Risk Perception ◽  
Perceived Risk ◽  
Theoretical Understanding ◽  
Behavior Intention ◽  
Risk Judgment ◽  
Positive Assessment ◽  
Information Sampling ◽  
Natural Characteristic ◽  
And Behavior ◽  
Risk Judgments

Linguistic polarity is a natural characteristic of judgments: Is that situation safe/dangerous? How difficult/easy was the task? Is that politician honest/dishonest? Across six studies (N = 1599), we tested how the qualitative frame of the question eliciting a risk judgment influenced risk perception and behavior intention. Using a series of hypothetical scenarios of skiing in avalanche terrain, experienced backcountry skiers judged either how safe or how dangerous each scenario was and indicated whether they would ski the scenario. Phrasing risk judgments in terms of safety elicited lower judged safety values, which in turn resulted in a lower likelihood of intending to ski the slope. The frame “safe” did not evoke a more positive assessment than the frame “danger” as might be expected under a valence-consistent or communication-driven framing effect. This seemingly paradoxical direction of the effect suggests that the question frame directed attention in a way that guided selective information sampling. Uncertainty was not required for this effect as it was observed when judging objectively safe, uncertain, and dangerous scenarios. These findings advance our theoretical understanding of framing effects and can inform the development of practices that harness question framing for applied risk perception and communication.

scholarly journals Assessing the Geographic Context of Risk Perception and Behavioral Response to Potential Ebola Exposure

2019 ◽  
Vol 16 (5) ◽  
pp. 831 ◽  
Author(s):  
Eric Shook ◽  
Andrew Curtis ◽  
Jacqueline Curtis ◽  
Gregory Gibson ◽  
Anthony Vander Horst ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Risk Perception ◽  
Perceived Risk ◽  
Ebola Virus ◽  
Virus Disease ◽  
The United States ◽  
Infected People ◽  
Spatial And Temporal Scales ◽  
Kent State University ◽  
Geographic Context ◽  
And Behavior

The 2014–2016 Ebola Virus Disease (EVD) epidemic outbreak reached over 28,000 cases and totaled over 11,000 deaths with 4 confirmed cases in the United States, which sparked widespread public concern about nationwide spread of EVD. Concern was elevated in locations connected to the infected people, which included Kent State University in Kent, Ohio. This threat of exposure enabled a unique opportunity to assess self-reported knowledge about EVD, risk perception, and behavior response to EVD. Unlike existing studies, which often survey one point in time across geographically coarse scales, this work offers insights into the geographic context of risk perception and behavior at finer-grained spatial and temporal scales. We report results from 3138 respondents comprised of faculty, staff, and students at two time periods. Results reveal increased EVD knowledge, decreased risk perception, and reduction in protective actions during this time. Faculty had the lowest perceived risk, followed by staff and then students, suggesting the role of education in this outcome. However, the most impactful result is the proof-of-concept for this study design to be deployed in the midst of a disease outbreak. Such geographically targeted and temporally dynamic surveys distributed during an outbreak can show where and when risk perception and behaviors change, which can provide policy-makers with rapid results that can shape intervention practices.

The ‘Michael’ Effect: Risk Perception and Behavioral Intentions Through Varying Lenses

2020 ◽  
Vol 07 (01n02) ◽  
pp. 2050007
Author(s):  
Cory L. Armstrong ◽  
Jue Hou ◽  
Nathan Towery
Keyword(s):  
Decision Making ◽  
Risk Perception ◽  
Theory Of Planned Behavior ◽  
Information Seeking ◽  
Behavioral Intentions ◽  
Visual Cues ◽  
Live Video ◽  
Media Messages ◽  
Behavior Intention ◽  
And Behavior

This study sought to measure risk perception and behavior intention of residents in coastal counties in Alabama and Florida in areas affected by Hurricane Michael in October 2018. The aim was to examine individual responses to impending disasters in areas that were recently touched by Hurricane Michael. Risk Information Seeking and Processing (RISP) model and the Theory of Planned Behavior (TPB) were employed in an experiment testing how visual cues and media messages surrounding an impending hypothetical hurricane were interpreted by residents, and their reported influence on an individual’s risk perception and decision-making in the situation. An analysis of 567 respondents determined that live video was most likely to motivate respondents to prepare activities for the storms.

scholarly journals Perceived Factors influencing the Public Intention to Use E-consultation: Analysis of Web-Based Survey Data (Preprint)

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Miaojie Qi ◽  
Jiyu Cui ◽  
Xing Li ◽  
Youli Han
Keyword(s):  
Perceived Risk ◽  
Ease Of Use ◽  
Perceived Usefulness ◽  
Intention To Use ◽  
Perceived Ease Of Use ◽  
Web Based ◽  
Personal Innovativeness ◽  
The Public ◽  
Behavior Intention ◽  
And Behavior

BACKGROUND Unbalanced distribution of medical resources is becoming a big challenge, particularly in selecting doctors. E-consultation could provide patients with more choices of doctors and break out the constraints of time and space. But the acceptance of e-consultation is still poor and the mechanism of adoption is unclear. OBJECTIVE This study aims to identify the factors influencing the public intention to use e-consultation and explore the effect path of factors and behavior intention. METHODS The hypotheses of our research model were developed based on technology acceptance model and perceived risk theory. A Web-based survey was conducted by a electric questionnaire collection platform and the 29 items questionnaire with 5-point Likert scales were completed by 934 respondents. Structural equation modeling was used to analyze the data. Item evaluation and reliability, validity, path loading, goodness of fit, and multiple-group analysis were used to check moderation effects. RESULTS Standardized factor loadings of items were between 0.551 and 0.873. Composite reliability of 9 constructs ranged from 0.706 to 0.840. Average variance extracted ranged from 0.387 to 0.640. The fitness indices showed that the collected data fitted well with the research model. Perceived usefulness was the strongest positive factor effecting behavior intention (β=0.399, P<.001). Perceived ease of use had a positive effect on behavior intention but it is not statistically significant (β=0.117, P=.066), and had a positive effect on perceived usefulness (β=0.537, P<.001). Perceived risk could be well explained by financial risk (β=0.972, P<.001), privacy risk (β=0.774, P<.001), social risk (β=0.871, P<.001), time risk (β=0.894, P<0.001), and psychological risk (β=0.774, P<.001). Perceived risk had negative effects on perceived usefulness (β=-0.375, P<.001) and behavior intention (β=-0.297, P<.001). Personal innovativeness had a positive influence on perceived ease of use (β=0.241, P<.001) and a slight effect on behavior intention (β=0.124, P=.001). Age(χ2=133.457, P<.001) and usage experience(χ2=82.495, P=.019) had a slight moderation effect on the paths. CONCLUSIONS Perceived usefulness and perceived risk have significant effects on public intention to use e-consultation. Therefore, platform and manufacturer must improve the function of e-consultation, which will promote the public intention to use e-consultation fundamentally. In order to control the perceived risk of public, government should play an important role in enforcing management of e-consultation markets and approving corresponding medical insurance policies. Besides, personal innovativeness had an effect on behavior intention. And the paths of factors had some heterogeneity among different characteristic people. Therefore, it is necessary to adjust the strategies to fit more groups better. CLINICALTRIAL

How Individuals Hypothetically and Realistically Respond to Media Messages About Severe Weather

2021 ◽  
Vol 4 (1) ◽  
pp. 47-62
Author(s):  
Cory L. Armstrong ◽  
Nathan A. Towery
Keyword(s):  
Decision Making ◽  
Risk Perception ◽  
Opposite Direction ◽  
Visual Cues ◽  
Severe Weather ◽  
Live Video ◽  
Media Messages ◽  
Behavior Intention ◽  
Before And After ◽  
And Behavior

This study sought to measure how risk perception and behavior intention of residents in coastal counties in Southern Alabama, Mississippi, and Northern Florida may have changed before and after Hurricane Michael in October 2018. The aim of this research project was to compare individual responses to impending disasters before the hurricane and compare them to responses in areas hit by the storm. The authors used an experiment to examine how visual cues and media messages were interpreted by residents and their reported influence on an individual's risk perception and decision-making in the situation. With roughly 1,030 respondents, results indicated that live video was most likely to motivate respondents to prepare activities after the storm, which was in the opposite direction of those respondents answering before the hurricane struck. The authors hope the findings of this study can help broadcasters better target their messages as they move forward.

scholarly journals The amplification of risk in experimental diffusion chains

2015 ◽  
Vol 112 (18) ◽  
pp. 5631-5636 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mehdi Moussaïd ◽  
Henry Brighton ◽  
Wolfgang Gaissmaier
Keyword(s):  
Risk Perception ◽  
Perceived Risk ◽  
Social Dynamics ◽  
Perception Of Risk ◽  
Social Amplification Of Risk ◽  
Public Response ◽  
The Public ◽  
Perceptions Of Risk ◽  
The Social ◽  
Risk Judgments

Understanding how people form and revise their perception of risk is central to designing efficient risk communication methods, eliciting risk awareness, and avoiding unnecessary anxiety among the public. However, public responses to hazardous events such as climate change, contagious outbreaks, and terrorist threats are complex and difficult-to-anticipate phenomena. Although many psychological factors influencing risk perception have been identified in the past, it remains unclear how perceptions of risk change when propagated from one person to another and what impact the repeated social transmission of perceived risk has at the population scale. Here, we study the social dynamics of risk perception by analyzing how messages detailing the benefits and harms of a controversial antibacterial agent undergo change when passed from one person to the next in 10-subject experimental diffusion chains. Our analyses show that when messages are propagated through the diffusion chains, they tend to become shorter, gradually inaccurate, and increasingly dissimilar between chains. In contrast, the perception of risk is propagated with higher fidelity due to participants manipulating messages to fit their preconceptions, thereby influencing the judgments of subsequent participants. Computer simulations implementing this simple influence mechanism show that small judgment biases tend to become more extreme, even when the injected message contradicts preconceived risk judgments. Our results provide quantitative insights into the social amplification of risk perception, and can help policy makers better anticipate and manage the public response to emerging threats.

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