Risk Communication Literature Research Articles

Communicating Personalized Benefits of Conservative versus Invasive Treatment of Chronic Coronary Disease: Reflections From the Risk Communication Literature

Communicating Personalized Benefits of Conservative versus Invasive Treatment of Chronic Coronary Disease: Reflections From the Risk Communication Literature

Unveiling the influence of transparency in risk communication: Shifting from information disclosure to uncertainty reduction

While the importance of government transparency is extensively discussed in risk communication literature, its practical application in risk contexts presents intricate challenges. This study introduces a redefined concept of transparency in the context of risk, covering two dimensions: information disclosure and uncertainty reduction. To investigate the impact of transparency, ranging from mere information disclosure to significant uncertainty reduction, a hierarchical multiple regression model is employed. Specifically, trust in government serves as a benchmark for information disclosure, while indicators for information disclosure strategies and public vulnerability are incorporated into the model as proxies for uncertainty reduction. The proposed model undergoes validation in a city lockdown scenario in China using self-report data from 435 college students, with anxiety serving as a benchmark for transparency outcomes. The findings suggest that indicators of uncertainty reduction (information disclosure strategies, individual vulnerability) exert much larger effects on anxiety than mere information disclosure (indicated by government trust). This implies that government transparency should prioritize uncertainty reduction, involving diverse strategies and addressing public vulnerabilities.

How risk messages influence tourist processing and sharing: The role of emojis

Understanding how tourists process and share risk messages during a crisis is critical for tourism risk communication. This research develops and tests a theoretical framework of tourist risk information processing and sharing in the context COVID-19 pandemic. A mixed-method design was employed, consisting of three separate studies conducted in different case contexts, involving different experimental subjects. The results showed that: a) risk message framing significantly impacted information sharing; b) heuristic and systematic processing and perceived value of information sharing were critical mediators that underpin the tourists' role shift from “receiver” to “sharer”; c) emojis strengthened tourists’ processing of risk message, and improved their perceived value and information sharing in the risk amplifying frame, compared with the risk attenuating frame. This research advances the risk communication literature and provides implications for destinations to set effective risk communication strategies in times of crisis.

Towards a participatory approach to risk communication: the case of contaminants and Inuit health

Indigenous populations residing in the Arctic commonly rely on country foods for nutritional, spiritual and cultural benefits. However, some food sources have become contaminated with heavy metals or persistent organic pollutants. As a result of these contaminants, it is critical that risk communicators develop effective and culturally appropriate health messages about the risks and benefits of eating country foods. To address this challenge in the Canadian Inuit region of Nunavik, a working group was formed to advance risk management, determine health advisories, and communicate recommendations about local country foods. The Nunavik Child Development Study (NCDS) Communications Working Group included local hunters, educators, health care professionals, researchers, and communicators, among others. In-depth interviews with members of the NCDS Communications Working Group were completed to provide insight into the risk management approach and how communication messages and materials were developed and delivered. Study results reveal the importance of including members of the Inuit population affected by the risk in the design and dissemination of communication material. In addition, researchers and healthcare professionals were able to: (1) access important local knowledge; (2) better understand the perceptions of the populations; and (3) assess behaviors that contributed to contaminant exposure. By incorporating multiple perspectives and including members of the population in the affected region in the decision-making process, there was greater consensus in risk management and communication design. We discuss the benefits and challenges of utilizing an approach that includes participatory elements, and how lessons from this case can contribute to participatory risk communication literature more broadly. This study ultimately provides insight into how using elements of a participatory approaches to risk management and communication – that considers different experiences, knowledges, and skills – can result in potentially more culturally relevant health advisories and risk communication campaigns.

Relationships Are Built on Sunny Days: Uncovering Quiet Weather Communication Strategies

Abstract This study proposes the concept of quiet weather communication and offers the first framework of quiet weather communication strategies tied to specific public outcomes (e.g., build and maintain organization–public relationships). Most of the risk communication literature focuses on severe weather communication. We posit that through defining and examining quiet weather strategic communication we can better understand how the weather enterprise can prepare communities for future severe weather. Through four virtual focus groups with 28 NWS and broadcast meteorologists, we operationalize quiet weather communication strategies (humanize the organization, provide weather education, share the love of blue skies, and showcase quiet weather trends). We then report meteorologists’ perceptions of the strengths and weaknesses of each strategy and propose future directions for research on quiet weather communication.

Expanding the discussion on internal management of risk communication: A critique of the current risk communication literature

The purpose of this paper is to build from the infrastructural approach to risk communication, rethink the internal management of risk communication, and critique the current literature’s discussion of how risks emerge, the role of the risk communication manager, and the decentralization of the risk communication function. Some of the risk communication literature is too general in terms of recognizing the nuance of the locus of risk, and the role(s) of stakeholders and communicators, which limit understanding that could extend and enrich current risk communication literature. In doing so, the conceptualization of where risk may occur broadens and research-based recommendations are developed from varied contexts to offer specific guidelines for future research to better understand the role of “internal” in risk communication and its practice. All of these points are not to diminish previous risk communication scholarship, but rather to refine and complement the current understanding so the management and communication of risk continues to enhance society as a whole.

California's Stakeholder Matrix: A Liaison Tool for the first 96 hours of Response

ABSTRACT Research on crisis and risk communication continues to illustrate the need for and benefits of early and sustained stakeholder engagement during disasters, both natural and manmade. The California citizenry is deeply committed to environmental protection and expects to “engage” with their government on policy development and environmental solutions. Stakeholders expect a high-level of government transparency, driving the need for engagement even more during emergency responses such as oil spills. Within the Incident Command System (ICS), it is the responsibility of the Liaison Officer (LOFR) to coordinate and share information with stakeholders. A review of “After Action Reports” and “lessons learned” from oil spills, both nationally and within California, point to the continued need for strong stakeholder engagement by the LOFR and has become a priority of California's lead oil spill response agency, the California Department of Fish and Wildlife, Office of Spill Prevention and Response (OSPR). Building off stakeholder engagement tools found in crises and risk communication literature and in Incident Command System job aids, OSPR crafted a stakeholder matrix that was readily scalable, easy to use, and easy to translate to Incident Commanders and other Command Staff during response. This matrix is a template of simple inputs, allowing stakeholders and engagement strategies to be identified, grouped, and prioritized. It is intended to be a planning tool for the first 24–96 hours, a precious time in a response. It is often too early to expect the LOFR to have completed a stakeholder engagement plan, yet this time is critical to initiating early stakeholder communication that will set the tone for the response. This matrix serves as the initial plan for the LOFR. This paper will describe the development of this tool, its evolution, and its use. It will also highlight feedback from exercises and response partners. It will describe the flexibility and scalability, and considerations for broader applications.

Challenges and Opportunities for Communicating Lead Exposure Risks in Idaho’s Silver Valley

Lead-contaminated soil and dust remain a primary hazard for mining-impacted regions around the world. Exposure to lead is linked to a range of negative health consequences like developmental delays in children. Residents and visitors in mining-impacted regions can practice health protective behaviors such as handwashing and avoidance of possibly contaminated areas to limit exposure. Health districts face the challenge of informing people about these recommended protective behaviors. The objective of this case is to describe the risk communication strategies employed by a health district and to evaluate residents’ perceptions of the risk of lead exposure in a mining-impacted region of northern Idaho. The case examination draws from risk communication literature, the experiences of the health district, and a community survey. The survey results suggest that appropriately tailoring health risk messages based on elevating recipients’ risk perceptions and efficacy levels may help to encourage protective behaviors. Because lead hazards pose dynamic risks in mining-impacted communities, it is also important to periodically update health risk messages through two-way information exchanges between experts and nonexperts. Lessons learned from this case can be applied to improve health through risk communication in other communities where lead hazards pose threats to human health.

Communicating about Contaminated Site Cleanup using Coordinated and Consistent Metrics: Opportunity and Challenge for the U.S. Department of Energy

Over $500 billion has gone toward cleanup of large contaminated sites owned and/or operated by the U.S. Federal Government over the past 30 years. Nevertheless, some stakeholders worry about the risks associated with what they perceive as a slow process of cleanup, as well as the positive and negative impacts of the cleanup activities themselves. Therefore, it is important for both the U.S. taxpayer and workers and residents living near the sites that are impacted by site conditions and activities, to clearly understand the progress that is being made toward achieving published cleanup goals, and a timeline for completion. This manuscript asks how lessons drawn from risk communication literature can inform practices for communicating metrics related to cleanup progress at U.S Department of Energy former nuclear weapon sites to different audiences. Following the review of literature, we present a case study that explores metrics being used and communicated on the websites of DOE and its largest sites, and discuss the consistency of these metrics and implications for public understanding and trust of progress being made. We finish the manuscript by applying the principles from the literature to the findings from the case study to suggest how the DOE could consider improvements in the format, content or delivery of cleanup progress metrics to its various audiences.

Visualizations of Projected Rainfall Change in the United Kingdom: An Interview Study about User Perceptions

Stakeholders from public, private, and third sectors need to adapt to a changing climate. Communications about climate may be challenging, especially for audiences with limited climate expertise. Here, we study how such audience members perceive visualizations about projected future rainfall. In semi-structured interviews, we presented 24 participants from climate-conscious organizations across the UK with three prototypical visualizations about projected future rainfall, adopted from the probabilistic United Kingdom Climate Projections: (1) Maps displaying a central estimate and confidence intervals, (2) a line graph and boxplots displaying change over time and associated confidence intervals, and (3) a probability density function for distributions of rainfall change. We analyzed participants’ responses using “Thematic Analysis”. In our analysis, we identified features that facilitated understanding—such as colors, simple captions, and comparisons between different emission scenarios—and barriers that hindered understanding, such as unfamiliar acronyms and terminology, confusing usage of probabilistic estimates, and expressions of relative change in percentages. We integrate these findings with the interdisciplinary risk communication literature and suggest content-related and editorial strategies for effectively designing visualizations about uncertain climate projections for audiences with limited climate expertise. These strategies will help organizations such as National Met Services to effectively communicate about a changing climate.

Adoption of Multilingual State Emergency Management Websites: Responsiveness to the Risk Communication Needs of a Multilingual Society

ABSTRACT This article draws on the risk communication and responsiveness literature for theoretical context to investigate the adoption of multilingual websites at state emergency management agencies. It analyzes the 50 state websites on their multilingual presence of emergency-related information available to the public. It uses a binary logistic regression to model the determinants of their multilingual e-government usage for risk communication. The study reveals that state emergency management agencies adopt multilingual websites (1) to be responsive to the needs of populations who may not speak English, (2) to reduce state and immigrant vulnerability to disasters through effective risk communication, and finally (3) when better economic conditions prevail in their states. The study also supports the idea that public administrators are not driven by prevailing political and ideological sentiments in the states when making policies to communicate risk. By adopting multilingual websites, states are demonstrating that a multilingual society constitutes an important collective voice.

Influenced by Anonymous Others: Effects of Online Comments on Risk Perception and Intention to Communicate

ABSTRACT Guided by the health risk communication literature and the social identity model of deindividualization effects, this study examines whether and how concurrent exposure to health news articles and congruent/incongruent comments posted by anonymous others may affect news viewers’ personal risk perception, societal risk perception, and intention to communicate about health risk issues. Two controlled experiments were conducted in Vietnam concerning two controversial health risk issues, including ear picking and child corporal punishment. Results showed a significant interaction effect between comments and perceived similarity on personal risk perception and societal risk perception, such that comments influenced both types of risk perception when viewers perceived that anonymous commenters were ingroup members. Results also indicated the joint effect of comments and perceived similarity on participants’ intention to communicate, mediated by their personal risk perception and societal risk perception. Theoretical and practical implications were discussed.

How is cervical cancer screening information communicated in UK websites? Cross-sectional analysis of content and quantitative presentation formats

ObjectivesTo investigate whether UK websites about cervical cancer screening targeted to the public include (1) information about benefits and risks of screening, possible screening results and cervical cancer statistics, (2)...

Emotional responses to climate change map framing using facial emotion recognition technology

Emotional responses to climate change map framing using facial emotion recognition technology

The Differential Effects of Fear and Tranquility on Risk Taking When Probabilistic Information is Communicated in Verbal Terms

Verbal probability expressions are often used to communicate risk in decision making situations. We tested the argument that fear would lead to more pessimistic risk perceptions and higher risk aversion than tranquility when the verbal probability expression used to communicate risk is more (vs. less) ambiguous. In Experiment 1, using a dispute resolution context, we found that fear led to a lower impasse rate than tranquility when the probability of winning in court was described using the ambiguous probability word ‘a chance’ than when less ambiguous probability words were used (i.e., doubtful, probable). In Experiment 2, we replicated this effect using a risky-choice task. Participants in the fear condition were more likely to choose the safe option than those in the tranquil emotion condition when risk was communicated using the ambiguous probability word ‘a chance’ (vs. ‘doubtful’ and ‘probable’). The implications of these findings for emotion, risk taking, and risk communication literatures are discussed.

“What Do You Know About Zika?”: Investigating Women at a Primary Healthcare Facility in a Small Municipality in Brazil

Introduction:In Brazil, poverty-stricken population groups were the most affected by Zika virus (ZIKV). Women and children are fragile links that need focused attention, especially in relation to health care.Aim:To investigate vulnerable, at-risk women in relation to their awareness of the ZIKV infection knowledge about the disease.Methods:With evidence-based risk communication literature and consequences of ZIKV infection, a data collection instrument with open-ended questions was developed. Women from a small municipality in west-central Brazil, most from a rural setting, were interviewed at primary health care centers in April 2018. Interviews were recorded and transcribed. A preliminary analysis ensued.Results:Forty women were interviewed. The average age was 42.3 (21-74 yrs) and 39 women had at least one child. The average number of people living in the same home was 3.8 (1-18) and 24 homes (60%) had one to four children. Fourteen women (54%) were beneficiaries of income supplementation programs. Two interviewees mentioned they had never heard of Zika and eight (20%) had no actual knowledge to convey. Other groups had some knowledge about ZIKV. Fifteen (37.5%) associated ZIKV with mosquito bites and another 15 with pregnancy or birth defects. Ten women (25%) mentioned dengue or chikungunya, but only 7 (17.5%) were aware of symptoms. Only eleven women (27.5%) declared public health workers as information sources.Discussion:Positive aspects of awareness and knowledge were the tentative relationship some women made between pregnancy risk and exposure to mosquitoes, and with dengue or chikungunya. However, given ample media coverage and the severity of the epidemic, it is noteworthy to point out that all aspects were mentioned by fewer than half of the women. Health workers were not represented as relevant sources of information. Future in-depth content analysis of interviews may reveal important issues for risk communication strategies for this population.

“Listen, did you hear…?” A structural equation model explaining online information sharing on the risks of nanotechnology in food

In order to encourage consumer informed decision making, it is in the interest of risk communicators in the food industry and authorities to facilitate consumer risk information sharing. Focusing on the risks of nanotechnology in food products, this study aimed to develop and test a model that describes the processes that result in the online sharing of risk information on food products. The model was based on the Theory of Planned Behaviour, the Risk Information Seeking and Processing model and the broader risk perception and communication literature. A cross-sectional online survey has been carried out among a representative sample of adults >18 years of age in the Netherlands (n = 511). Attitude, self-efficacy, and injunctive and descriptive subjective norms in relation to information sharing were measured, as were information need, information seeking, trust, risk perception and anxiety in relation to the application of nanotechnology in food products. Structural equation modelling (SEM) was applied to test the determinants of information sharing behaviour, and their relationships. Results showed that the intention to share information about the risks of nanotechnology in food online was medium-low. The hypothesized model as a whole fitted the data and nine of the fourteen path coefficients were highly significant. Results showed injunctive norms to be the main determinant of information sharing. Attitude and information seeking also contributed to the explanation of the variance in information sharing. Results are put into the perspective of relevant theoretical viewpoints and empirical findings. Implications for food risk communication and the facilitation of informed decision making are discussed.

Consumer’s Regulatory Knowledge of Prescription Drug Advertising and Health Risk Awareness: The Moderating Role of Risk Information Prominence

ABSTRACTBorrowing insights from the consumer knowledge and the direct-to-consumer prescription drug advertising (DTCA) risk communication literature, the current study examined how consumers’ regulatory knowledge regarding DTCA affects attention to and awareness of risk information in DTCA. The moderating role of risk information prominence and the mediating mechanism of attention were also explored. Taking an experimental design approach using a sample of US consumers (N = 264), risk information prominence was manipulated using various message attributes (e.g., font, color, size, box line, thickness, proximity). The study found that consumers’ higher regulatory knowledge led to greater attention to risk information when the health risks of the advertised drug were presented less prominently, compared with when the risks were salient. The regulatory knowledge enhanced consumer recall and recognition of the drug’s health risks through attention, but the indirect effects were dependent on the disclosure prominence level, such that the effects were more apparent when the prominence was low. This study manifests the value of consumers’ regulatory literacy of DTCA to make informed prescription medication decisions and advises pharmaceutical marketers to present noticeable health risk information to encourage consumers to consider important health risks of promoted drugs in their decision making.

‘Real without being concrete’: the ontology of public concern and its significance for the Social Amplification of Risk Framework (SARF)

Public concern is a pivotal notion in the risk perception, communication and management literature. It is, for example, a central concept with regard to the social amplification of risk, and as a justification for policy attention. Despite its ubiquity, the notion of public concern remains a ‘black box’ presenting a poorly understood state of affairs as a reified matter-of-fact. Paying attention to the deployment and metrics of public concern, and the work it is required to do, will enhance the power of approaches to understanding risk, and policymaking. Thus, the broad purpose of this paper is to unpack the notion of public concern by adopting an ontological yet critical perspective, drawing on a range of literature that considers ontology. We reflect on how publics and public concern have been conceptualised with regard to the dichotomies of individual/social and private/public, given that they imply different levels and dimensions of concern. We draw on empirical work that illuminates the assessment and measurement of public concern and how the public have responded to risk events. Considering public concern through an ontological lens affords a means of drawing renewed critical attention to objects that might otherwise appear finished or ready-made.

College, mental health, and a violent student: employing numerical formats to communicate risk on campus

Non-experts, including college administrators, professors, and students are often faced with risk assessment decisions on campus. Despite this fact, there are few accepted professional standards for presenting statistical risk and far fewer recommendations for the communication of violence risk. Existing systematic reviews are both incomplete and limited in scope and more troubling are the contradictory conclusions and competing recommendations for the communication of information that is essential to decision-making. In this article, three directions in the violence risk communication literature were given attention. First, non-experts were asked to make risk estimates using information from an expert source. Second, this project moves research attention to an important domain, campus violence. Finally, multiple outcome variables were assessed in an effort to extend the scope of research beyond Bayesian reasoning. Measured outcomes included: risk judgments, linguistic features, and affective processing as put forth by the affective processing theories. When the effect of estimating or communicating risk as a probability was compared to a frequency: frequency evidence was rated as less confusing and easier to understand.