Department Health and Prevention, Institute of Psychology, University of Greifswald, Greifswald, Germany.
Risk Anal. 2021 Sep;41(9):1630-1642. doi: 10.1111/risa.13636. Epub 2020 Nov 14.
In crisis communication, warning messages are key to prevent or mitigate damage by informing the public about impending risks and hazards. The present study explored the influence of hazard type, trait anxiety, and warning message on different components of risk perception. A survey examined 614 German participants (18-96 years, M = 31.64, 63.0% female) using a pre-post comparison. Participants were randomly allocated to one of five hazards (severe weather, act of violence, breakdown of emergency number, discovery of a World War II bomb, or major fire) for which they received a warning message. Four components of risk perception (perceived severity, anticipatory worry, anticipated emotions, and perceived likelihood) were measured before and after the receipt. Also, trait anxiety was assessed. Analyses of covariance of risk perception were calculated, examining the effect of warning message, trait anxiety, and hazard type while controlling for age, gender, and previous hazard experience. Results showed main effects of hazard type and trait anxiety on every component of risk perception, except for perceived likelihood. The receipt of a warning message led to a significant decrease in anticipated negative emotions. However, changes across components of risk perception, as well as hazards, were inconsistent, as perceived severity decreased while perceived likelihood and anticipatory worry increased. In addition, three interactional effects were found (perceived severity × hazard type, perceived severity × trait anxiety, and anticipated emotions × hazard type). The findings point toward differences in the processing of warning messages yet underline the importance of hazard type, as well as characteristics of the recipient.
在危机沟通中，警告信息是预防或减轻损害的关键，通过向公众告知即将到来的风险和危险。本研究探讨了危险类型、特质焦虑和警告信息对风险感知不同成分的影响。一项调查使用前后比较法调查了 614 名德国参与者（18-96 岁，M=31.64，63.0%为女性）。参与者被随机分配到五种危险中的一种（恶劣天气、暴力行为、紧急号码中断、发现二战炸弹或重大火灾），并收到相应的警告信息。在收到警告信息前后，参与者分别对风险感知的四个成分（感知严重性、预期担忧、预期情绪和感知可能性）进行了测量。此外，还评估了特质焦虑。使用协方差分析对风险感知进行了计算，在控制年龄、性别和先前危险经验的情况下，考察了警告信息、特质焦虑和危险类型的影响。结果显示，危险类型和特质焦虑对风险感知的每个成分都有显著影响，除了感知可能性。收到警告信息会导致预期负面情绪显著减少。然而，风险感知成分的变化以及危险类型的变化并不一致，感知严重性降低，而感知可能性和预期担忧增加。此外，还发现了三个交互作用（感知严重性×危险类型、感知严重性×特质焦虑和预期情绪×危险类型）。研究结果表明，人们对警告信息的处理存在差异，但强调了危险类型以及接收者特征的重要性。
