Citation

Fischer L, Huntsman D, Orton G, Sutton J. Weather Clim. Soc. 2023; 15(2): 307-326.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2023, American Meteorological Society)

DOI

10.1175/WCAS-D-22-0092.1

PMID

unavailable

Abstract

A long-term goal for warning-message designers is to determine the most effective type of message that can instruct individuals to act quickly and prevent loss of life and/or injury when faced with an imminent threat. One likely way to increase an individual's behavioral intent to act when they are faced with risk information is to provide protective action information or guidance. This study investigated participant perceptions (understanding, believing, personalizing, deciding, milling, self-efficacy, and response efficacy) in response to the National Weather Service's experimental product Twitter messages for three hazard types (tornado, snow squall, and dust storm), with each message varying by inclusion and presentation of protective action information placed in the tweet text and the visual graphic. We also examine the role of prior hazard warning experience on message perception outcomes. To examine the effects, the experiment used a between-subjects design in which participants were randomly assigned to one hazard type and received one of four warning messages. Participants then took a post-test measuring message perceptions, efficacy levels, prior hazard warning experience, and demographics. The results showed that, for each hazard and prior hazard experience level, messages with protective action guidance in both the text and graphic increase their understanding, belief, ability to decide, self-efficacy, and response efficacy. These results reinforce the idea that well-designed messages that include protective action guidance work well regardless of hazard type or hazard warning experience. Significance Statement Preventing injury and/or loss of life during a hazardous event is a prime concern for disaster communicators. The study provides insights to practitioners on how to effectively communicate protective actions to audiences with varying familiarity with the hazard through Twitter posts. We experimented with tweet message design and content for three hazards: tornado, snow squall, and dust storm, to find that posts that include protective action guidance in both the text and image increase participant perceptions that they could perform the suggested protective actions, regardless of hazard type or hazard warning experience. Given our findings, practitioners should consider including protective action guidance in message text and graphic to warn members of the public with varied prior warning experience.

Language: en