@article{ref1,
title="Factors of perceived threat regarding severe storm events: results of a vignette study in four European countries",
journal="Safety science",
year="2019",
author="Hahm, Stefanie and Kietzmann, Diana and Lemanski, Sandra and Knuth, Daniela and Schmidt, Silke",
volume="116",
number="",
pages="26-32",
abstract="Crisis communication influences how the public perceives an impending disaster, which is assumed to be a key factor in shaping disaster response. These situational perceptions are likely influenced by message-related factors and recipient characteristics. This study aimed to investigate the association of the perception regarding an impending severe storm event after receiving a warning message (i.e., perceived threat) with message characteristics, experiences with similar events, and prior perceptions regarding this type of event (i.e., perceived risk). A vignette study with N = 326 participants from four European countries (Finland, Germany, Hungary, and Poland) was carried out within the framework of the &quot;Snowball&quot; project. The participants were confronted with a warning message concerning an impending severe storm event. Information source and amount of information were systematically varied, resulting in a 2 × 2 design. Perceived risk (PR) was measured before receiving the warning, perceived threat (PT) directly afterwards. Both PR and PT were measured as subjective likelihood and concern. A multiple regression was conducted for each PT-measure. Contrary to expectations, the message characteristics were not associated with any PT-measure. The associations of experience and PT differed depending on the type of PT-measure. As expected, PR-likelihood was positively associated with PT-likelihood, and PR-concern was positively related to PT-concern. The results illustrate how current judgements might be biased by previous judgements and experiences, regardless of warning characteristics. The positive association of PR and PT underlines the importance of pre-disaster risk communication for laying the foundations of effective crisis communication by raising awareness of specific types of disasters.<p /> <p>Language: en</p>",
language="en",
issn="0925-7535",
doi="10.1016/j.ssci.2019.02.026",
url="http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.ssci.2019.02.026"
}