The Effect of Risk Communication on Public Behavior to Non-Conventional Terrorism-Randomized Control Trial.

Moran Bodas,Morel Ragoler,Esther Krasner,Yossi Rabby

doi:10.3390/ijerph19010342

Abstract

Non-conventional terrorism (NCT) incorporates an extended dimension of uncertainty that can lead to fear among the public. Health officials have an unsubstantiated assumption that thousands will seek treatment in hospitals following NCT. This study aims to examine public behavioral intentions in the case of NCT and the effect of risk communication on intents. An online randomized controlled trial was conducted among 1802 adult participants in Israel. Threat perception and behavioral intent before and after exposure to hypothetical NCT scenarios were assessed stratified to the type of media, exposure to rumors, and risk communication. The majority (~64%) of participants are aware of the NCT threat. Almost half (45%) of participants indicated a “high” or “very high” chance of seeking medical attention following an NCT incident. Regression analysis suggests that the odds of participants exposed to risk communication to report an elevated intent of seeking medical attention were 0.470 (95% CI: 0.359, 0.615) times that of participants not exposed to risk communication, χ2 = 30.366, p < 0.001. The findings demonstrate the importance of effective risk communication in reducing undesired public behavior during NCT crises. Efforts must be invested to create a robust risk communication infrastructure to allow the proper management of possible NCT incidents.

Highlights

Non-conventional terrorism (NCT), known as chemical, biological, radiological, or nuclear (CBRN) terrorism, entails the use of such substances to gain political goals and poses a serious challenge to crisis managers from a public health point of view
This study examined the effect of risk communication on such intent, as well as the effect of the type of media and the presence of rumors/fake news on behavioral intent
Men report more than women to have prior knowledge about NCT (70.5% compared to 55.4%, respectively), according to the chi-square test (χ2 = 38.38, df = 1, p < 0.001)

Summary

Introduction

Non-conventional terrorism (NCT), known as chemical, biological, radiological, or nuclear (CBRN) terrorism, entails the use of such substances to gain political goals and poses a serious challenge to crisis managers from a public health point of view. Being a form of intergroup threat, NCT is inherently infused with elevated anxiety [1]. This attribute is described in numerous relevant social psychology frameworks, as early as the realistic group conflict theory [2], and, more recently, Stephan and Stephan’s integrated group threat theory [3]. The use of CBRN agents in a terrorism context is likely to cause emotional distress and amplify fear and anxiety responses by the public [4,5,6,7,8]. NCT incidents may have serious implications to public health due to several inherent characteristics, including (a) threat perceived as external, e.g., terrorism, (b) being an “out-of-the-blue” occurrence, (c) being manmade, (d) an unfamiliar

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