Carter Holly, Drury John, Amlôt Richard, Rubin G James, Williams Richard
Emergency Response Department, Public Health England, Porton Down, Salisbury, United Kingdom.
School of Psychology, University of Sussex, Falmer, Brighton, United Kingdom.
PLoS One. 2014 Mar 4;9(3):e89846. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0089846. eCollection 2014.
The risk of incidents involving mass decontamination in response to a chemical, biological, radiological, or nuclear release has increased in recent years, due to technological advances, and the willingness of terrorists to use unconventional weapons. Planning for such incidents has focused on the technical issues involved, rather than on psychosocial concerns. This paper presents a novel experimental study, examining the effect of three different responder communication strategies on public experiences and behaviour during a mass decontamination field experiment. Specifically, the research examined the impact of social identity processes on the relationship between effective responder communication, and relevant outcome variables (e.g. public compliance, public anxiety, and co-operative public behaviour). All participants (n = 111) were asked to visualise that they had been involved in an incident involving mass decontamination, before undergoing the decontamination process, and receiving one of three different communication strategies: 1) 'Theory-based communication': Health-focused explanations about decontamination, and sufficient practical information; 2) 'Standard practice communication': No health-focused explanations about decontamination, sufficient practical information; 3) 'Brief communication': No health-focused explanations about decontamination, insufficient practical information. Four types of data were collected: timings of the decontamination process; observational data; and quantitative and qualitative self-report data. The communication strategy which resulted in the most efficient progression of participants through the decontamination process, as well as the fewest observations of non-compliance and confusion, was that which included both health-focused explanations about decontamination and sufficient practical information. Further, this strategy resulted in increased perceptions of responder legitimacy and increased identification with responders, which in turn resulted in higher levels of expected compliance during a real incident, and increased willingness to help other members of the public. This study shows that an understanding of the social identity approach facilitates the development of effective responder communication strategies for incidents involving mass decontamination.
近年来，由于技术进步以及恐怖分子使用非常规武器的意愿，应对化学、生物、放射或核泄漏事件时涉及大规模去污的事故风险有所增加。针对此类事件的规划主要集中在相关技术问题上，而非社会心理方面的考量。本文呈现了一项新颖的实验研究，考察了三种不同的应急人员沟通策略在大规模去污现场实验中对公众体验和行为的影响。具体而言，该研究探讨了社会认同过程在有效应急人员沟通与相关结果变量（如公众服从、公众焦虑和公众合作行为）之间关系中的作用。所有参与者（n = 111）在接受去污过程并收到三种不同沟通策略之一之前，被要求设想自己卷入了一起涉及大规模去污的事件：1）“基于理论的沟通”：以健康为重点的去污解释以及足够的实用信息；2）“标准做法沟通”：没有以健康为重点的去污解释，有足够的实用信息；3）“简短沟通”：没有以健康为重点的去污解释，实用信息不足。收集了四类数据：去污过程的时间安排；观察数据；以及定量和定性的自我报告数据。导致参与者在去污过程中进展最顺利、不服从和困惑情况最少的沟通策略，是既包含以健康为重点的去污解释又有足够实用信息的策略。此外，该策略还提高了对应急人员合法性的认知以及对应急人员的认同感，进而在实际事件中提高了预期的服从水平，并增强了帮助其他公众的意愿。这项研究表明，理解社会认同方法有助于制定针对涉及大规模去污事件的有效应急人员沟通策略。
