The Psychosocial Resonance of Food Safety Risk: A Space-Time Perspective

Area of Science:

• Complex Systems Science
• Risk Communication
• Epidemiology

Background:

• Food safety incidents can trigger widespread public concern and impact consumer behavior.
• Understanding the dynamics of risk perception diffusion is crucial for effective crisis management.
• Psychosocial factors significantly influence how food safety risks are perceived and spread within populations.

Purpose of the Study:

• To develop and apply a novel CA-SHIRS model for analyzing the spatial-temporal diffusion of food safety risk perception.
• To investigate the interplay between consumer heterogeneity, media strategies, and risk resonance.
• To identify key factors influencing the spread and control of food safety risk perception.

Main Methods:

• Construction of a Cellular Automata-Susceptible-Hidden-Infected-Recovered-Susceptible (CA-SHIRS) model.
• Integration of complex network theory with epidemic modeling principles.
• Analysis of diffusion mechanisms considering consumer heterogeneity and media communication.

Main Results:

• Increased infection, conversion, and immune failure probabilities accelerate risk diffusion, while higher immune probability aids control.
• Diffusion thresholds are negatively correlated with risk perception, attention, media freedom, and report authenticity.
• Market noise, consumer sentiment, and media report tendency positively correlate with diffusion thresholds, accelerating spread.

Conclusions:

• Consumer risk perception, attention, media freedom, and report authenticity are key inhibitors of risk diffusion.
• Market noise, consumer sentiment, and media report tendency act as accelerators for risk perception spread.
• The CA-SHIRS model provides a robust framework for understanding and managing psychosocial dynamics in food safety crises.