Although the risk of flooding poses a serious threat to the Dutch public, citizens are not very inclined to engage in self-protective behaviors. Current risk communication tries to enhance these self-protective behaviors among citizens, but is nonetheless not very successful. The level of citizens engaging in self-protective actions remains rather low. Therefore, this research strives to determine the factors that might enhance or lessen the intention to engage in self-protection among citizens. The study was a 2 (flood risk: high vs low) 9 2 (efficacy beliefs: high vs low) between subject experiment. It was conducted to test how varying levels of flood risk and efficacy beliefs influence two different selfprotective behaviors, namely information seeking and the intention to engage in risk mitigating or preventive behaviors. Furthermore, the relationship between information seeking and the intention to take self-protective actions was discussed. Results showed that high levels of flood risk lead to higher levels of both information seeking and the intention to engage in self-protective behaviors than low levels of flood risk. For efficacy beliefs, the same trend occurred. Also, results showed that information seeking seems to coincide with the intention to take preventive actions and acted as a mediator between the levels of perceived risk and efficacy and the intention to take self-protective actions.

Although a growing body of risk communication research focuses on how people process risk information, one question that is overlooked is how the seeking of information contributes to behavioral adaptation toward the risk issue. How are people's behavioral responses to risks affected by the search for risk information? Building on the Framework of Risk Information Seeking (FRIS), this paper reports on two studies that focus on the experimental testing of several of the basic FRIS assumptions. In study 1, a 2 (involvement: high vs. low) Â 2 (risk perception: high vs. low) between-subjects experiment was conducted to test the assumption that higher levels of involvement and risk perception stimulate the intention to seek additional risk information as well as the actual risk information. Study 2 is a partial replication of study 1. In study 2, a 2 (involvement: high vs. low) Â 2 (fear appeal: present vs. absent) Â 2 (response efficacy: high vs. low) between-subjects experiment was conducted to test how varying the levels of involvement, risk perception, and response efficacy influence actual and intended information seeking, as well as the intention to adopt risk-mitigating actions. The results showed that the high-involvement, high-risk perception, high-response efficacy group was most likely to actually seek information and make behavioral changes. The results are in accordance with basic FRIS assumptions. Implications for risk communication are discussed.

A B S T R A C TThis study contributes to our knowledge of whether and why citizens engage in self-protective behavior with regard to a real-life risk (the transportation of chemical substances by train). We assume that the way in which relevant risk information is processed, actively vs. passively, is a crucial factor. We hypothesize that behavioral training on self-protectiveness (the active approach) will increase respondents' perceived feasibility (self-efficacy) and the expected usefulness (response-efficacy) of risk-mitigating options to a larger extent than the passive approach (merely read about it). We subsequently propose that behaviorally trained participants will show more self-protectiveness than merely informed participants. Both groups are also compared to an uninformed control group.First, a behavioral-training-effectiveness-study was conducted in order to explore whether the training developed led to an increase in participants' efficacy beliefs and self-protectiveness (N = 47). Second, in our main study we took a random sample from the town's population (N = 614) and tested if the instructional method (behavioral training vs. information only vs. no information) is a predictor of efficacy beliefs and self-protectiveness.As expected, the instructional method used and the level of perceived response-efficacy positively influence self-protectiveness. Behaviorally trained respondents perceived risk mitigating options as more useful and showed more self-protectiveness than merely informed and uninformed participants. Furthermore, responseefficacy turned out to be a partial mediator between instructional method and self-protectiveness. Self-efficacy did not significantly predict self-protectiveness in this study.This study demonstrates that using appropriate risk communication tools is crucial in order to increase selfprotective behavior of citizens.

In the current study, the effect of repetitive risk messages on actual self-protective behavior in both the short-and long-term was tested. The research took place in the Risk Factory, a state-of-the-art safetyeducation-center in which children (age: 9-13) experience real-life-risks first hand and learn how to deal with dangerous situations. We assumed that risk message repetition increases the level of selfprotective behavior to a larger extent than providing only one single risk message or than providing no risk message at all. We chose a behavioral training (active risk-communication) as research indicates that this form is more effective in increasing self-protectiveness than standard-passive techniques of risk communication. In our study among primary school children in the Netherlands (N ¼ 265, M age ¼ 11.4 years), we tested the added predictive value of repeating risk messages via a serious game over and above the effect of the Risk Factory behavioral training (behavioral training repetition vs. behavioral training vs. no information) on self-protectiveness directly following and 3 months after the interventions. The self-protective behaviors measured in this study were related to "responding to an air aid alarm", "how to deal with undesired behavior from others on the internet" and "when/how calling the Dutch emergency number (112)". As expected, risk message repetition led to a significant increase in intentions to engage in as well as actual self-protective behavior on the short-as well as long-term. Respondents receiving risk message repetition showed significantly more risk mitigating behavior shortly after and three months after receiving the risk messages than respondents receiving a single risk message or no risk message. This study demonstrates that risk message repetition is beneficial when trying to enhance the resilience of primary school children.

No abstract