File attachment:
| Title | Communicating Risk Information Processing Under Stress: Community Reactions - project report 2012-2013 |
| Publication Type | Report |
| Year of Publication | 2014 |
| Authors | McNeill, I, Dunlop, PD, Skinner, TC, Morrison, D |
| Pagination | 1-74 |
| Date Published | 2014 |
| Abstract | The Information Processing Under Stress: Community Reactions project sits within the research stream called ‘Communicating Risk’. The project has a focus on increasing our understanding of how residents living in bushfire prone areas can be motivated to prepare better for the bushfire season and make better decisions when a fire threatens their community. The project entails a variety of research phases that aim to answer questions such as ‘Why do so many people anticipate responding indecisively when a fire threatens their community?’, ‘Why do people fail to properly prepare for the fire season even when they intend to do so at the start?’, ‘How can information and feedback regarding residents’ preparedness best be presented to them to motivate them to prepare further?’ and ‘Does the effectiveness of certain message framings in heightening preparedness levels depend on person characteristics?’. More specific, the project contains 8 phases of quantitative research, which all focus on different factors, both situational (e.g., message framing) and personality (e.g., high versus low anxiety individuals) based, that may be linked to people’s motivation, expectations, and information processing, and influence their subsequent decision making and actions. The main goal of these 8 phases of research is to gather a better understanding of what preparedness is, how different types of information may influence people’s willingness to prepare, and how different people may react differently to the same piece of information. |
