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Municipal Risk Communication and Public Trust: Reducing Counterproductive Behaviors Across Emergency Scenarios
Moran Bodas1, Omar Watad1, Stav Shapira2
1Department of Emergency and Disaster Management, School of Public Health, Gray Faculty of Medical and Health Sciences, Tel Aviv University, Tel Aviv-Yafo, Israel.
Summary
Municipal guidance in emergencies significantly reduced harmful behaviors like spreading rumors. However, it had less impact on proactive safety measures, highlighting the need for tailored local risk communication strategies.
Area of Science:
- Disaster Management
- Risk Communication
- Public Policy
Background:
- Municipal authorities are key in risk communication during emergencies.
- Limited understanding exists on how municipal messages affect public safety behaviors.
Purpose of the Study:
- To examine the influence of municipal informational messages on behavioral intentions across diverse emergency scenarios.
- To compare behavioral responses to rumors versus rumors with municipal guidance.
Main Methods:
- Cross-sectional experiment with 1509 adult participants.
- Assessed behavioral intentions across five emergency scenarios: wildfires, flooding, hazardous materials, extreme weather, and civil unrest.
- Compared outcomes for participants exposed to rumors alone versus rumors with municipal guidance.
Main Results:
- Municipal messaging significantly reduced counterproductive behaviors, including rumor-spreading and convergence on hazard sites.
- Limited impact was observed on preparedness and proactive information seeking behaviors.
- Trust in national authorities exceeded trust in local governments; demographics moderated responses.
Conclusions:
- Local communication strategies can serve as effective harm-reduction tools during emergencies.
- Scenario-specific message design and proactive trust-building are crucial for effective municipal risk communication.
- Further field-based research is needed to validate real-world behavioral impacts.
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