Understanding emergency response: lessons learned from the helping literature

Whitmer, Daphne E.; LaGoy, Madeleine R.; Sims, Valerie K.

doi:10.1504/ijem.2018.10010184

Cited by 2 publications

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“…Rather, the literature identifies a large number of moderating variables (whether the situation was identified as an emergency, whether the respondent was alone or with others, whether those others were friends or strangers, etc.) that determine the likelihood of helping (e.g., Levine & Manning, 2013; Whitmer, LaGoy, & Sims, 2018). On surveying the relevant literature, whatever data on non‐helping in emergencies do exist is to be found scattered among disparate papers with no single article capable of summarizing all of the relevant investigations (see Wolbers et al, 2021).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Socio‐psychological barriers preventing people from helping in times of crisis: A scoping review

Kossowska,

Szwed,

Czernatowicz‐Kukuczka

et al. 2024

Community & Applied Soc Psy

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A robust field of research has elucidated when and why people are willing to offer help in times of crisis. Yet helping behaviour does not always occur when needed, and the absence of helping during crisis is less well studied. By broadly defining a crisis as an extremely difficult, disruptive and dangerous situation, which may result in possible harm to individuals, groups and societies, this article reviews research focused on the following general question: What factors (psychological, sociological, economic and legal) prevent people from helping others in times of collective crisis? The present work (a) integrates the helping literature, (b) presents new theoretical and empirical perspectives on novel findings concerning failures to help during crises, and (c) suggests recommendations that will enable professionals involved in emergency management to support the public in developing their own capacity to manage and overcome crises. Please refer to the Supplementary Material section to find this article's Community and Social Impact Statement.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Socio‐psychological barriers preventing people from helping in times of crisis: A scoping review

Kossowska,

Szwed,

Czernatowicz‐Kukuczka

et al. 2024

Community & Applied Soc Psy

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“…When people fail to take emergency warnings seriously, there can be fatal consequences (Dixon, 1980; Drabek, 1985; Wang & Kapucu, 2007; Whitmer et al, 2018). Unfortunately, people failing to heed warnings is a common occurrence (e.g., residents not evacuating before a hurricane).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Fear Language in a Warning Is Beneficial to Risk Perception in Lower-Risk Situations

Whitmer

Sims

2021

Hum Factors

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Objective The goal was to examine the effectiveness of fear language in the protective action recommendation of an emergency warning, which instructs people how to prepare and stay safe. Background Past work is limited because it has focused on describing the severity of the weather crisis, not improving the recommendation. Likewise, other research has examined fear appeals that overemphasize death, which leads to poor risk perceptions. Method In Experiment 1, the presence of fear language and second-person personal pronouns (i.e., “you”) in a recommendation was manipulated. Experiment 2 examined how fear language and a hurricane changing in intensity influenced risk perceptions across three decision points. Results Experiment 1 suggested that fear language was more influential than a pronoun on risk perceptions. Experiment 2 suggested that fear language in a protective action recommendation was most impactful in the case of a hurricane decreasing in intensity. Conclusion Protective action recommendations with fear language influence risk perceptions and behaviors. The magnitude of this influence is dependent on how people have categorized the hurricane (i.e., low vs. high risk). Application These results demonstrate that fear appeals in hurricane warnings can be useful, especially in cases when a low to medium risk event is still extremely dangerous. Likewise, these results demonstrate a need for caution, as fear appeals are not a “one size-fits-all” approach to increasing risk perceptions and should be used thoughtfully. Recommendations of when to use fear appeals in protective action recommendations are provided based on the present data.

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Understanding emergency response: lessons learned from the helping literature

Cited by 2 publications

References 0 publications

Socio‐psychological barriers preventing people from helping in times of crisis: A scoping review

Socio‐psychological barriers preventing people from helping in times of crisis: A scoping review

Fear Language in a Warning Is Beneficial to Risk Perception in Lower-Risk Situations

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