Risk Communication Emergency Response Preparedness: Contextual Assessment of the Protective Action Decision Model

Abstract

Studies are continuously performed to improve risk communication campaign designs to better prepare residents to act in the safest manner during an emergency. To that end, this article investigates the predictive ability of the protective action decision model (PADM), which links environmental and social cues, predecision processes (attention, exposure, and comprehension), and risk decision perceptions (threat, alternative protective actions, and stakeholder norms) with protective action decision making. This current quasi-longitudinal study of residents (N = 400 for each year) in a high-risk (chemical release) petrochemical manufacturing community investigated whether PADM core risk perceptions predict protective action decision making. Telephone survey data collected at four intervals (1995, 1998, 2002, 2012) reveal that perceptions of protective actions and stakeholder norms, but not of threat, currently predict protective action decision making (intention to shelter in place). Of significance, rather than threat perceptions, perception of Wally Wise Guy (a spokes-character who advocates shelter in place) correlates with perceptions of protective action, stakeholder norms, and protective action decision making. Wally's response-efficacy advice predicts residents' behavioral intentions to shelter in place, thereby offering contextually sensitive support and refinement for PADM.

Americans’ Views of Voluntary Protective Actions Against Zika Infection: Conceptual and Measurement Issues

“…) but negatively for the two mosquito control actions in the full sample and for spraying in the relevant‐only analysis. The general lack of association of trust with intentions (7 of 11 main analyses here) conflicts with the assumption that trust promotes cooperation (Earle & Siegrist, ), but also with an alternative assumption that distrust of authorities fosters self‐reliance (also see Heath et al., on a negative association of trust with intentions as reflecting undesired complexity of expert advice). It is unclear why mosquito controls particularly were negatively correlated with trust, an issue meriting further study.…”

“…Lack of effect might reflect few Zika cases in 2017; perhaps a minimum perceived threat is needed to activate consideration of self‐protective action. Yet threat also had no effect on sheltering‐in‐place intentions for chemical releases (Heath, Lee, Palenchar, & Lemon, ), without an obvious temporal association. Positive effects of threat might reflect relative media attention to specific transmission routes, such as mosquitoes (74% of 2016 Zika news stories; Sell et al., ), travel (43% and 30%, depending upon the measure), and sex (31%).…”

The Evolving Field of Risk Communication

“…Other behavioral outcomes that factored frequently in risk communication research were audience's willingness to take protective actions and seek risk information. Among prominent theoretical frameworks, the Protective Action Decision Model (Lindell & Perry, 2012), originally posited to predict behavioral intentions in the face of "natural" disasters, such as hurricanes (Rickard et al, 2017b), wildfires (McCaffrey, Wilson, & Konar, 2018), and tornadoes (Miran, Ling, Gerard, & Rothfusz, 2019), was also used to examine infectious diseases (Johnson, 2019) and chemical spills (Heath, Lee, Palenchar, & Lemon, 2018). Efforts to understand information seeking behaviors frequently built on the Risk Information Seeking and Processing model (Yang, Aloe, & Feeley, 2014), which integrates messenger, message, and audience characteristics to predict information seeking behaviors.…”

Social mobilization and media framing in the journalistic coverage of oil survey permits in the Mediterranean

“…Knowing social movements and their relations with the news media, the research could go beyond framing analysis to focus on how they were formed in the complex frame-building process (Vliegenthart & Van Zoonen, 2011;Brüggemann, 2014). In this frame building, the risk communication carried out by the administration that authorized the oil surveys should also be analyzed (Farré, 2006;Lundgren & McMakin, 2017;Heath et al, 2018Heath et al, , 2019. As noted by Sandman et al (2017), greater availability of information on environmental risks will result in Mercado-Sáez, M.ª T., Sahuquillo Verdet, F. & Chavez, M. Social mobilization and media framing in the journalistic coverage of oil survey permits in the Mediterranean better coverage and, in the words of Dunwoody & Peters, (1992, p. 224), issues "with sufficient depth" will be addressed, avoiding superficiality or poor rigor.…”