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Drawing from protection motivation theory (PMT), we examined how place attachment and negative emotions, alongside threat and coping appraisals, personal experiences, and demographic characteristics, relate to behavioral intentions to mitigate exposure to flood risks in southern Louisiana. We administered a statewide, representative telephone survey to 807 Louisiana residents, oversampling residents living in southern and coastal parishes particularly vulnerable to flood risk. While the results showed no difference depending on participants’ location in the state, there were strong effects of coping appraisals on individuals’ intentions to mitigate their exposure to flood risk, consistent with prior PMT findings. The addition of place attachment to standard PMT variables revealed a nuanced relationship with behavioral intentions. Results show that participants’ place attachment decreased the effects of threat and coping appraisals on some behavioral intentions, such as moving out of the state, while posing no significant effect of threat and coping appraisals on other intentions, such as supporting flood risk mitigation policies. Feeling negative emotions increased the likelihood of participants’ indicating a willingness to move or elevate their home, among other actions. While this study supports the consistency of threat and coping appraisals to predict discrete behavioral intentions, the results also provide insight that may be critical for risk communication initiatives in Louisiana. Namely, individuals with high levels of place attachment may be less willing to leave their community but more willing to engage in behaviors that enhance community resilience, although the more negative emotions they feel, the more willing they may be to take more drastic measures.

Despite potential benefits emerging energy technologies usually promise, the public often meets them with skepticism, resistance, or even outright rejection. In this study, we investigated the potential role communication plays in the early stages of opinion formation. In particular, we examined the relationships among message framing, information processing, communication motivation, and information seeking. Building on work examining uncertainty reduction, fairness, risk communication, and the theory of planned behaviors, we conducted an experiment in which a sample of U.S. adults (N = 1042) were led to believe that enhanced geothermal systems (EGS) would be developed in their local community. Participants received initial information varying in degrees of uncertainty and procedural fairness about the EGS development. Subsequently, we offered them an opportunity to read additional articles about EGS, which was operationalized as actual information seeking behaviors. We found that predictors, such as affect, norm, current knowledge, and information need, explained information engagement intentions, which further predicted actual information seeking behaviors. In addition, systematic processing of the initial EGS information, perceived uncertainty, and perceived fairness had direct relations with actual information seeking. The discussion provides theoretical and practical implications.

We employed the risk information seeking and processing (RISP) model to identify socio-cognitive factors motivating hunters’ information seeking, sharing, and discussion of the risks of using lead ammunition for hunting. Values, risk perceptions, and informational insufficiency similarly predicted individual- and societal-level informational behavioral intentions. In contrast, knowledge and explicated informational subjective norms (descriptive, dynamic, and injunctive norms) differentially influenced them. Interestingly, there were discrepancies found between theoretical predictions of information sharing and self-reported willingness to share a risk communication video on lead ammunition for hunting, which offers insights about the utility value of the RISP model for practitioners.

Previous research suggests that when individuals have limited knowledge to make sense of new or emerging technologies, they may rely more on available cues, such as the fairness of those managing the risks, when developing their attitudinal and behavioral responses to the technology. To examine this further, we designed an online experiment (N = 1,042) to test the effects of risk managers' nonoutcome fairness on individuals' selective exposure to additional information and perceived risk. As the study context, we used the development of enhanced geothermal systems (EGS), which uses drilling to tap deep underground sources of heat for district heating and electricity and remains low in familiarity among the U.S. public. The results suggest that participants who read about the fair risk manager were subsequently more likely to have positive attitudes toward EGS development. In turn, those with more positive attitudes were more likely to select and read positively valenced articles about EGS, resulting in an indirect effect of the fairness condition. Although this study also explored whether uncertainty moderated this fairness effect on information seeking, it found no evidence. Additionally, when participants were exposed to information featuring fair risk managers, perceived risk decreased, an effect that was mediated by beliefs that EGS was controllable and not dreadful. These results underscore the importance of using practices that will increase nonoutcome fairness in the introduction of new technologies.

Understanding why private property owners take actions to conserve bats has become increasingly important in U.S. states where the fungus causing white-nose syndrome (Pseudogymnoascus destructans) has decimated bat populations. We surveyed property owners in three New York State counties (n = 2,500) and used multiple linear regression analyses to test predictors of intentions to conserve bats. Intentions to take actions that contribute to bat conservation directly were predicted by severity of rabies consequences, sense of bat conservation self efficacy, beliefs about responsibility for bat conservation, and attitudes toward bats (R² =.39). Intentions to take actions that conserve bats indirectly were predicted by biospheric value orientations, beliefs about responsibility for bat conservation, and attitudes toward bats (R² =.27). The relationship between beliefs about rabies and intentions to take actions that contribute to bat conservation highlights the need for coordinated risk communication between public health and wildlife conservation organizations.

The order in which individuals receive information about wildlife may influence their attitude toward wildlife differently. We explored order effects of a threat message that induced more fear versus a suffering message that elicited more compassion on attitude toward wildlife. Specifically, we focused on bats, a risk-laden species also suffering massive mortalities due to a disease affecting bat populations across the United States. We randomly assigned 1,506 U.S. adults to one of eight message conditions as part of a 2 (message order: suffering → threat vs. threat → suffering) × 2 (suffering messages) × 2 (threat messages) between-subjects factorial design or a control (no message) condition. We found a significant two-way interaction between message order and biospheric values on attitude toward bats. For people with high biospheric values, reading a suffering message first led to a more positive attitude than reading a threat message first, whereas reading a threat message first led to a more positive attitude than reading a suffering message first for people with low biospheric values. Compassion but not fear mediated these effects. Theoretical and practical implications are provided.

In May 2020, the New York City (NYC) Mayor’s Office of Climate Resiliency (MOCR) began convening bi-weekly discussions, called the Rapid Research and Assessment (RRA) Series, between City staff and external experts in science, policy, design, engineering, communications, and planning. The goal was to rapidly develop authoritative, actionable information to help integrate resiliency into the City’s COVID response efforts. The situation in NYC is not uncommon. Extreme events often require government officials, practitioners, and citizens to call upon multiple forms of scientific and technical assistance from rapid data collection to expert elicitation, each spanning more or less involved engagement. We compare the RRA to similar rapid assessment efforts and reflect on the nature of the RRA and similar efforts to exchange and co-produce knowledge. The RRA took up topics on social cohesion, risk communication, resilient and healthy buildings, and engagement, in many cases strengthening confidence in what was already known but also refining the existing knowledge in ways that can be helpful as the pandemic unfolds. Researchers also learned from each other ways to be supportive of the City of New York and MOCR in the future. The RRA network will continue to deepen, continue to co-produce actionable climate knowledge, and continue to value organizational sensemaking as a usable climate service, particularly in highly uncertain times. Given the complex, rare, and, in many cases, unfamiliar context of COVID-19, we argue that organizational sensemaking is a usable climate service.

The 40th Anniversary of the Society for Risk Analysis presents an apt time to step back and review the field of risk communication. In this review, we first evaluate recent debates over the field's current state and future directions. Our takeaway is that efforts to settle on a single, generic version of what constitutes risk communication will be less productive than an open‐minded exploration of the multiple forms that comprise today's vibrant interdisciplinary field. We then review a selection of prominent cognitive, cultural, and social risk communication scholarship appearing in the published literature since 2010. Studies on trust in risk communication messengers continued to figure prominently, while new research directions emerged on the opportunities and critical challenges of enhancing transparency and using social media. Research on message attributes explored how conceptual insights particularly relating to framing, affective and emotional responses, and uncertainty might be operationalized to improve message effectiveness. Studies consistently demonstrated the importance of evaluation and how varying single attributes alone is unlikely to achieve desired results. Research on risk communication audiences advanced on risk perception and multiway engagement with notable interest in personal factors such as gender, race, age, and political orientation. We conclude by arguing that the field's interdisciplinary tradition should be further nurtured to drive the next evolutionary phase of risk communication research.

The global coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic has already had an enormous impact and will surely have profound consequences for many years to come. The authors reflect on three risk communicat...

Efforts to communicate risk reduction policies must consider how target audiences will respond to the source of the message. This study investigates how modifying the message source enhances or diminishes psychological reactance against a policy designed to curb a wildlife disease. In an experimental study, we attributed a press release announcing this policy to different sources. We found that the source had an indirect effect on reactance, which subsequently affected attitudes toward the policy and behavioral intentions. Specifically, the more similar and trustworthy participants perceived the source, the less likely the source was to induce freedom threat or reactance.

Pathways to recognizing shared interests in addressing environmental problems are sometimes blocked by a lack of understanding or even misperceptions among stakeholder groups, which can impede productive communication. Drawing on a currently evolving case study, this study examines the perceptions of stakeholders involved with oyster restoration in waters of the Hudson-Raritan Estuary considered unsuitable for commercial harvesting (i.e., closed waters) in New York and New Jersey. Survey research conducted with commercial shellfish farmers and oyster restoration volunteers shows that support for oyster restoration is less related to stakeholder group identification and more to the perceived risks to public health and the economy, and the perceived ecological benefits. The conclusions suggest how these results might be used to demonstrate where agreement exists among stakeholder groups, which could improve discussion about oyster restoration and advance shared interests.

Scientists are now more certain than ever that humans are responsible for climate change through the combustion of fossil fuels. A recent Global Energy Assessment report, compiled by the International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis, indicates that, globally, domestic energy consumption accounts for about a quarter of global greenhouse gas emissions. A fundamental shift in energy consumption is needed, moving away from the use of fossil fuels to meet emission reduction targets.

Southern Louisiana and its coastal bayous are sites of both frequent flooding and rapid coastal land loss, exacerbated by the increasing effects of climate change. Though much work has examined flood risk perceptions in coastal areas, few studies have considered the qualitative and contextual dimensions of perceptions of coastal land loss and its associated impacts, and how these perceptions relate to local culture, place, and intentions to mitigate personal exposure to risk. We conducted six focus groups in areas with distinct exposure to coastal land loss. Participants expressed strong attachment to community, culture, and place. Personal ties to land loss through family or social connections, experiences with fishing and water-based activities, and indirect impacts on Louisiana’s seafood industry and cuisine provided a lens for understanding the immediate impacts of coastal land loss. Participants felt that exposure to the risks of land loss was inevitable and that mitigation was beyond individual efforts, a feeling that manifested both as pessimism and as a resilient focus on collective action. Considering state history with political corruption, participants generally distrusted state-level mitigation initiatives. These findings shed light on the qualitative dimensions of coastal land loss perceptions in southern Louisiana and their relation to place attachment, mitigation intentions, and sources of risk information. While participants with personal ties to risk report feelings of exposure and inevitability, they are also embedded in communities with strong ties to place. This nuance only complicates the meanings that individuals associate with land loss and the actions that they are motivated to take, impacts of coastal land loss on the landscape and distinct place characteristics of southern Louisiana may lead to significant disruption to identity and well-being, but also provide a pathway for risk awareness and potential motivation of collective mitigation actions.

Risk scholars have long examined how public opinion about environmental issues is shaped by message framing devices, for example, as when climate change is portrayed as a ‘public health’ vs. ‘environmental health’ issue, or when the phenomenon itself is labeled as ‘global warming’ vs. ‘climate change.’ Yet, seldom do these framing devices occur in isolation; instead, they often co-occur – or intersect – in messaging about emerging environmental risks, which may hold underappreciated implications for theory and practice. This paper introduces the concept of intersecting frames, which we define as occurring whenever communicators emphasize a subset of the available aspects of an issue (i.e. emphasis framing) that itself is referred to using one of a larger set of alternative labels used to represent the issue in discourse. As an initial exploration of the concept, we report on a web experiment featuring 602 US respondents in which Vibrio bacteria in oysters was framed primarily as a risk either to p...

Genetic modification (GM) of crops and climate change are arguably two of today's most challenging science communication issues. Increasingly, these two issues are connected in messages proposing GM as a viable option for ensuring global food security threatened by climate change. This study examines the effects of messages promoting the benefits of GM in the context of climate change. Further, it examines whether explicit reference to “climate change,” or “global warming” in a GM message results in different effects than each other, or an implicit climate reference. An online sample of U.S. participants (N = 1050) were randomly assigned to one of four conditions: “climate change” cue, “global warming” cue, implicit cue, or control (no message). Generally speaking, framing GM crops as a way to help ensure global food security proved to be an effective messaging strategy in increasing positive attitudes toward GM. In addition, the implicit cue condition led to liberals having more positive attitudes and behavioral intentions toward GM than the “climate change” cue condition, an effect mediated by message evaluations.

Growing awareness of the potential for some energy-related activities to induce earthquakes has created a need to understand how the public evaluates the risks of induced earthquakes versus the benefits of energy development. To address this need, this study presents a web survey that used a between-subjects factorial experimental design to explore the views of 325 U.S. adults, who were asked about their experiences with earthquakes; risk perceptions related to different causes of earthquakes (e.g., natural versus induced); and acceptability of earthquakes depending on the benefits, beneficiaries, and decision making process. The results found that participants had more negative feelings toward induced versus naturally occurring earthquakes. Although they judged no earthquake as “acceptable,” participants rated induced earthquakes significantly less acceptable than naturally occurring ones. Attributing the benefits to the provision of renewable energy or climate change mitigation did not increase induced earthquake acceptability, and no particular beneficiary made earthquakes more acceptable, although private companies as beneficiaries made earthquakes less acceptable. Finally, induced earthquake acceptability was significantly higher when people believed that people like them had a voice in the decision to implement the technology that caused the earthquake, underscoring the importance of public engagement in the development of energy technologies.

This study addressed how engaging in different forms of information exchange within a group is related to group members' willingness to share risk information with outsiders. Drawing from social exchange theories, we focused on 3 unrestricted forms of information exchange: pure-generalized, group-generalized, and productive. We hypothesized that individuals' intentions to share information with outsiders would be associated positively with engagement in pure or group-generalized exchanges and negatively with productive exchange. The hypotheses were supported with data from a national survey of U.S. growers (N = 452) that examined their information-sharing behaviors with other parties inside and outside their local region. The findings have broad implications for understanding information sharing within and across groups.

The interplay between science, risk assessment and risk management has always been complex, and even more so in a world increasingly characterised by rapid technical innovation, new modes of communication, suspicion about authorities and experts, and demands for people to have a say in decisions that are made on their behalf. In this challenging era where scientific advice on food safety has never been in greater demand, risk managers should effectively navigate the interplay between facts and values and be able to rely on robust and fit‐for‐purpose risk assessments to aid them. The fact that societal resistance is often encountered when scientific advice on food safety operates at a distance from social values and fails to actively engage with citizens, has led to increasing emphasis on the need to advance forms of risk assessment that are more contextual, and socially sound and accountable. EFSA's third Scientific Conference explored how risk assessments could be constructed to most usefully meet society's needs and thus connect science with society, while remaining scientifically robust. Contributors to the conference highlighted the need to: (1) frame risk assessments by clear policy goals and decision‐making criteria; (2) begin risk assessments with an explicit problem formulation to identify relevant information; (3) make use of reliable risk assessment studies; (4) be explicit about value judgements; (5) address and communicate scientific uncertainty; (6) follow trustworthy processes; (7) publish the evidence and data, and report the way in which they are used in a transparent manner; (8) ensure effective communication throughout the risk analysis process; (9) involve society, as appropriate; and (10) weigh risks and benefits on request. Implementation of these recommendations would contribute to increased credibility and trustworthiness of food safety risk assessments.

The dual pressures of climate change and population growth in Africa make enhancing sustainable development an important focus of initiatives hoping to reach as many people as possible with appropriate innovations. Resource and infrastructure challenges often limit the ability of programs to expand through the use of extension and other forms of in-person training. Although media such as radio, television, and mobile phones cannot replace the value of interpersonal communication, they can offer a low-cost alternative for reaching large audiences in even some of the most remote regions. With the increasing use of media for sustainable development come questions relating to the ability of these channels to move beyond a one-way flow of information to include and respond to local knowledge and experiences and to create dialogue, both farmer to farmer and between farmers and designers of educational messaging. This article evaluates the role of media in promoting sustainable agriculture in Zambia. Specificall...

This study investigates the level of awareness about funding influences and potential conflicts of interests (COI) among early career researchers. The sample for this study included users of one or more of the 14 U.S. laboratories associated with the National Nanotechnology Infrastructure Network. To be eligible, respondents must have been either still completing graduate work or

This article extends our understanding of risk communication related to communal risk and risk information sharing. Building on research from risk communication, organizational behavior, and social psychology, it examines individual-, relation-, and community-level motivations to share information about a devastating plant disease. This disease can bring about substantial economic risk to everyone in a farming community. We tested our hypotheses using a national sample of U.S. tomato and potato growers ( N = 452). Our findings show that growers were motivated to share information about a communal risk based on (a) individual-oriented concerns for economic costs, (b) relation-oriented concerns for reciprocation and the information recipient’s trustworthiness, and (c) community-oriented concerns comprising a sense of shared responsibility and community cohesiveness.

Issues of transparency lay at the center of the debate surrounding the labeling of genetically modified (GM) food products in the USA. These issues include not only the argument that consumers should be allowed to make purchasing choices based on full disclosure of product ingredients but also that they should have access to the process that makes decisions about labeling. This study examines the influence of procedural justice on perceived decision legitimacy and decision support regarding GM food labeling decisions. Using a 2 × 2 factorial design, participants recruited from an online Qualtrics panel (N = 450) were randomly assigned to read a fictitious news article about an agricultural company’s decision about whether to label their food products as having GM ingredients. Articles varied by the company’s labeling decision (label versus no label) and whether the company listened to public input prior to making the decision (public input versus no public input). The results showed significant main effec...

Building on research in motivated reasoning and framing in science communication, we examine how messages that vary attribution of responsibility (human vs animal) and temporal orientation (now vs in the next 10 years) for wildlife disease risk influence individuals’ conservation intentions. We conducted a randomized experiment with a nationally representative sample of US adults ( N = 355), which revealed that for people low in biospheric concern, messages that highlighted both human responsibility for and the imminent nature of the risk failed to enhance conservation intentions compared with messages highlighting animal responsibility. However, when messages highlighting human responsibility placed the risk in a temporally distal frame, conservation intentions increased among people low in biospheric concern. We assess the underlying mechanism of this effect and discuss the value of temporal framing in overcoming motivated skepticism to improve science communication.

This study investigates how the physical proximity of university-sponsored climate mitigation projects may moderate the relationship between affect and project support and impact public support for the respective projects. Using a mail survey (N = 667) of residents near a major university in New York State, we find that positive and negative affective responses to proposed climate mitigation projects have a stronger association with project support when the project will be implemented in close, as opposed to distant, physical proximity. In contrast, we do not find that the physical distance of project implementation moderates the relationship between affective responses to climate change in general and project support. In addition, we find no evidence of a NIMBY effect in public support/opposition to the particular projects, but do find that public support varies depending on the type of project that is being proposed.

Oceans are suffering from the dual climatic pressures of warming temperatures and acidification, increasing the presence of disease risks that affect marine organisms and public health. Through a randomized field-based experiment, this study examines the effects of communicating about risks to marine organisms and public health on people’s support for policies aimed at mitigating those risks as a function of different message frames. To maximize the salience of these issues, participants were recruited from ferry passengers ( N =543) in the San Juan Islands of Washington State in the summer of 2013 and randomized to read one of four fictitious news articles detailing the increased incidence of deadly bacteria ( Vibrio ) in oysters in the Pacific Northwest. Depending on condition, the article attributed the causes to global warming or climate change and the consequences primarily to oyster health or public health—frames that recent research suggests can influence how the public responds to environmental messages. Results showed high levels of support for marine policy and high concern about the prevalence of marine disease risks across the sample (i.e., irrespective of framing condition). Analysis of individual differences suggested that participants with lower biocentric (i.e., environmental) values were more supportive of marine policy when exposed to the article highlighting consequences to oyster health from global warming, an effect that was fully mediated (or explained) by level of self-reported concern. The results demonstrate the importance of communication about marine disease in showing how subtle changes in message frames can elicit differential support for marine policy.

We draw from theories of motivated reasoning, dual-processing models, and attribution of responsibility to examine how scientific messages may increase public polarization with respect to emerging risk issues such as Lyme disease. A nationally representative sample of Americans ( N = 460) read messages about Lyme disease that varied the framing of responsibility for the prevalence of the disease (human/wildlife vs. wildlife only) and when its effects will occur (today vs. in the next 10 years). The influence of framing was contingent on participants’ partisanship, which resulted in a boomerang effect among Republicans and increased the degree of political polarization regarding support for proenvironmental behaviors.

Research on employees’ perspectives and decision making about energy conservation within organizational contexts is limited, constraining appropriate and effective policy and planning. In addition, work considering the socio-psychological influences of such organizational contexts on individual energy decisions is also limited. To help fill these gaps, this study used the Theory of Planned Behavior to develop a survey on attitudes, subjective norms and behavioral intentions toward energy conservation behavior among faculty, staff and graduate students working at a large U.S. university ( n = 2919). Results showed the influence of subjective norms (injunctive and descriptive), attitudes, and perceived behavioral control on behavioral intentions to engage in energy conservation behaviors at work. Sense of community also positively predicted behavioral intentions and self-reported behavior. Theoretically, this calls for more work on how sense of community influences energy behaviors, while practically it suggests that energy conservation interventions should consider sense of community as a potential factor in program uptake.

In his essay, ‘Four Questions for Risk Communication,’ Roger Kasperson challenges the risk communication community to take better stock of the lessons it’s learned over the past several decades. Implicated are the failure of many to reap the rewards or benefits of our field’s discoveries and the attendant responsibility we collectively bear in not communicating them well enough. Less a scolding than a call to action, Kasperson thoughtfully reflects on his four questions before offering some summary principles. In so doing, he has initiated a conversation that offers some key points of reflection on where our community stands today and where we might be going. Neither exhaustive in its scope nor patronizing in his directives, his essay is an invitation – a nudge – to begin a dialog on these issues and become more mindful of our own successes and failures in risk communication.

This study examines support for the genetic modification (GM) of crops in the context of preventing “late blight,” a devastating potato and tomato disease that caused the Irish Potato Famine in the 1850s and results in substantial crop loss today. We surveyed U.S. adults who do the primary grocery shopping in their household (n = 859). Half of the respondents were randomly assigned to read a vignette describing late blight before responding to questions about GM, whereas the other half read a vignette about generic crop disease before responding to questions. We also examine how the perceived fairness of decision makers relates to GM support and the perceived legitimacy of GM decision making. We found that disease specificity mattered less to support and legitimacy than the perceived fairness of decision makers. The perceived risks of GM to human and environmental health negatively related to GM support and legitimacy, whereas the perceived benefits (e.g. reduced threats to crops and a more secure food supply) positively related to support and legitimacy. Objective knowledge about GM had a small, negative relationship with legitimacy whereas self-assessed familiarity with GM had a positive relationship. Overall, the results offer additional confirmation of past findings from more localized settings that perceived fairness of decision makers matters to support for GM and underscore the importance of considering how risk managers’ behaviors and actions are perceived alongside individuals’ perceptions about the risks and benefits.

Much discussion surrounds the question of whether people tend to perceive new and emerging technologies in ways similar to how they perceive older, more familiar technologies. The study argues that the direct association between familiarity and support is just one way of thinking about how familiarity may affect views about emerging technologies, such as nanotechnology and nuclear energy. The study uses a probability-based survey of Americans where half received questions about nanotechnology and half received nearly identical questions about nuclear energy. Overall, it shows that the ‘standard’ predictors of technology support – risk/benefit perceptions, familiarity, and views about decision-makers – are similar for both nanotechnology and nuclear energy but that lower familiarity may also result in less ability for these variables to statistically explain support for nanotechnology. The data provide only partial evidence that citizens meaningfully differentiate between the two very different technologie...

Although research suggests that feedback on energy usage can generate savings in residential and organizational settings, investigations into the effectiveness of comparative feedback efforts have been fragmented and the findings inconclusive. To help fill this gap, we present research on the effectiveness of a comparative feedback campaign in promoting energy conservation at a university. Surveys were administered in 2009 ( n = 2,112) and 2012 ( n = 1,601) to measure the extent to which a comparative feedback campaign influenced behavioral determinants, such as conservation-related subjective norms, perceived behavioral control, and attitudes, as well as self-reported behaviors. Results indicate that respondents in participating buildings increased their energy conservation behaviors and perceptions of descriptive norms. Furthermore, participating buildings reduced their energy consumption (kWh/ft2) by 6.5%, whereas non-participating buildings increased energy consumption by 2.4%. Our results show promise for comparative feedback-based campaigns as effective pro-environmental interventions within organizations and provide direction for future research and practice.

In 2007, a US National Park Service (NPS) biologist working in Grand Canyon National Park in the state of Arizona died from pneumonic plague contracted from a mountain lion, prompting NPS, in partnership with local and federal agencies, to inform publics about plague risk within park contexts. Overall, the incident attracted limited media attention and public concern about an increased risk of plague. Drawing on the Social Amplification of Risk Framework (SARF), the Crisis and Emergency Risk Communication model (CERC) and the related literature outlining ‘best practices’ in crisis communication, we explore how characteristics of this incident may have attenuated, rather than amplified, plague risk. Results are drawn from the data collected at a workshop with NPS employees and in-depth interviews with these and other individuals. Theoretical and practical implications of this research, including future directions for pairing CERC and SARF in organizational risk and crisis communication research are discussed.

As anthropogenic stressors threaten the health of marine ecosystems, there is a need to better understand how the public processes and responds to information about ocean health. Recent studies of public perceptions about ocean issues report high concern but limited knowledge, prompting calls for information campaigns to mobilize public support for ocean restoration policy. Drawing on the literature from communication, psychology and related social science disciplines, we consider a set of social-cognitive challenges that researchers and advocates are likely to encounter when communicating with the public about ocean health and emerging marine diseases—namely, the psychological distance at which ocean issues are construed, the unfamiliarity of aquatic systems to many members of the public and the potential for marine health issues to be interpreted through politicized schemas that encourage motivated reasoning over the dispassionate consideration of scientific evidence. We offer theory-based strategies to help public outreach efforts address these challenges and present data from a recent experiment exploring the role of message framing (emphasizing the public health or environmental consequences of marine disease) in shaping public support for environmental policy.

Since 1960, bat rabies variants have become the greatest source of human rabies deaths in the United States. Improving rabies awareness and preventing human exposure to rabid bats remains a national public health priority today. Concurrently, conservation of bats and the ecosystem benefits they provide is of increasing importance due to declining populations of many bat species. This study used a visitor-intercept experiment (N = 521) in two U.S. national parks where human and bat interactions occur on an occasional basis to examine the relative persuasiveness of four messages differing in the provision of benefit and uncertainty information on intentions to adopt a rabies exposure prevention behavior. We found that acknowledging benefits of bats in a risk message led to greater intentions to adopt the recommended rabies exposure prevention behavior without unnecessarily stigmatizing bats. These results signify the importance of communicating benefits of bats in bat rabies prevention messages to benefit both human and wildlife health.

a group of your editorsengaged in a process to select the 10 most importantaccomplishments in risk analysis. The article that fol-lows is the product of this process.Some preliminary decisions were that we wouldreachouttothefullmembershipfornominations,fo-cus on the period 1980 to 2010, and accept nomina-tionsforcontributions totheory, methods, and appli-cations. Also, we focused on accomplishments thataddress health, safety, and the environment, whichhas been our tradition.

The current study seeks to demonstrate that a citizen views about public meeting structure and related groups matter in predicting satisfaction with public engagement and willingness to attend future meetings. Public health agencies frequently use public meetings to communicate risk information, but relatively little social science research has examined how potential meeting participants view them. Using survey data (N = 866) collected in seven US communities where health agencies were investigating possible local cancer clusters and holding public meetings to communicate with local residents, the current study replicates and extends an earlier inquiry related to citizens satisfaction with public meetings used for risk communication. Whereas previous research found that expectations, health agency credibility, and risk perceptions predicted satisfaction with public meetings, the current results did not show a significant relationship between agency credibility, risk perceptions, and satisfaction. Further,...

Research suggests that fairness perceptions matter to people who are asked to evaluate the acceptability of risks or risk management. Two separate national random surveys (n = 305 and n = 529) addressed Americans' concerns about and acceptance of nanotechnology risk management in the context of the degree to which they view scientists and risk managers as fair. The first survey investigated general views about scientists across four proposed dimensions of fairness (distributional, procedural, interpersonal, and informational). The results show that respondents who believe that the outcomes of scientific research tend to result in unequal benefits (distributional fairness) and that the procedures meant to protect the public from scientific research are biased (procedural fairness) were more concerned about nanotechnology. Believing scientists would treat them with respect (interpersonal fairness) and ensure access to information (informational fairness) were not significant predictors of concern. The second study also looked at these four dimensions of fairness but focused on perceptions of risk managers working for government, universities, and major companies. In addition to concern, it also examined acceptance of nanotechnology risk management. Study 2 results were similar to those of study 1 for concern; however, only perceived informational fairness consistently predicted acceptance of nanotechnology risk management. Overall, the study points to the value of considering fairness perceptions in the study of public perceptions of nanotechnology.

Across the United States, universities are grappling with challenges associated with adopting approaches to more sustainable energy use. One approach has been to develop energy-related projects in their local, host communities. Because host communities can play a major role in the successful planning and implementation of these projects, understanding the factors relating to their support is important. Building on research that suggests that procedural fairness is one such key factor, this study examines community members’ support of six approaches a local university could implement to work towards a goal of carbon neutrality. The results of a mail survey ( N =677) found that perceived fairness of campus decision makers was significantly related to community support for the proposed approaches; however, beliefs about the efficacy of the different approaches to address challenges associated with climate change had the strongest relationship with support. The results also suggest that residents prefer changes in the energy infrastructure, such as the development of wind power, over the purchase of carbon offsets. We discuss the results in terms of actions that universities may take to foster community engagement in decision-making for university-sponsored sustainable energy projects.

While cognitive heuristics may produce successful, efficient outcomes, they can also introduce predictable biases that may be unavoidable even for seasoned experts. This study connects the concept of “professional intuition” to the practice of strategic communication, suggesting that people may rely on heuristics to profile an audience. These judgments, in turn, influence crafting of communication to meet the audiences’ assumed needs, the defining element of an audience-centered approach. Using interview and observational data, this study examines how national park staff use heuristic cues to evaluate visitors during face-to-face interactions. The assessments employees make, in turn, influence whether they encourage or discourage visitors from participating in inherently risky recreational activities. This visitor proficiency profiling, together with the strategic communication strategies employed, extends audience-centered communication to include both informal messages as well as individuals not necessa...

To understand what motivates people to attend to information about clinical trial enrollment, this study applies the risk information seeking and processing model (RISP) to explore potential differences in multichannel information seeking between (a) the general population and (b) cancer patients and their caregivers. The unique context of clinical trial enrollment grants this research an opportunity to study the RISP model in relation to a risk issue with varying relevance to the two samples as well as to investigate the role of emotion on information seeking. Key results suggested that risk perception and negative emotions had opposite effects on information seeking across the two samples; however, optimistic feelings had the most consistent, positive effects on seeking from all three types of information sources: interpersonal, traditional media, and online. These findings suggest important theoretical and practical implications in relation to promoting information seeking related to clinical trial enrollment among the general population as well as among specific patient groups.

Scholars have long lobbied for a view of risk communication that supplants a conventional ‘transmission’ model of risk communication with an alternative that considers the complex social environment that accompanies any risk communication effort. Along these lines, this study examines the relative influence of official health messages versus symbolic risk messages on public meeting attendees’ post‐meeting concern about cancer clusters in six US communities. As part of a larger study of cancer clusters, we obtained written responses from 125 individuals who attended a government‐sponsored public meeting in their community. We asked respondents whether attending the meeting influenced their concerns and, if so, why. The results found that, despite the largely reassuring messages that health officials were giving, most attendees reported feeling more concerned after the meetings in their communities. Regarding why, explanations that denoted symbolic risk messages – unofficial sources of risk information and ...