Citation

Ploran EJ, Trasciatti MA, Farmer EC. J. Appl. Commun. Res. 2018; 46(3): 291-322.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2018, National Communication Association, Publisher Informa - Taylor and Francis Group)

DOI

10.1080/00909882.2018.1464659

PMID

unavailable

Abstract

To understand why coastal residents do not always evacuate before storms, a pair of studies analyzed evacuation decision-making among residents of Long Beach, NY and surrounding municipalities on Long Island, NY via a mixed methodology approach. First, residents who lived in Long Beach, NY during 'Superstorm' (hurricane turned post-tropical cyclone) Sandy in October 2012 were interviewed about their evacuation decision. Second, 34 pre-storm messages were developed and administered to residents of the same area: faced with a hypothetical oncoming hurricane, respondents indicated after each message whether they would evacuate. In the interviews, residents spoke more about friends and family than traditional authority figures; survey results, however, imply that residents are more likely to evacuate given messages from traditional authority figures. This can be resolved with the Elaboration Likelihood Model of persuasion, which suggests that motivation and emotional state influence information processing. Implications for actual emergency message formation are discussed.

Language: en