RAPID Proposal: Psychological distance, risk perceptions and communication behaviors during the Ebola outbreak

快速提案：埃博拉疫情期间的心理距离、风险认知和沟通行为

• 批准号: 1460714
• 负责人: Janet Yang
• 金额: $ 8.41万
• 依托单位: SUNY at Buffalo
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2014
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2014-11-01 至 2016-04-30
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=1460714&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: RAPID; Proposal; Psychological; distance; risk

This project assesses the American public's views of the Ebola outbreak and how these views influence their communication behaviors related to the outbreak such as information seeking, information sharing and information processing. The project focuses on the degree to which such views are influenced by the public's perceptions regarding the importance and personal relevance of this issue, as well as their emotional responses to the outbreak and whether they perceive this issue as psychologically distant and abstract. The research involves a survey, based on a nationally representative sample of 1,000 participants, who are randomly assigned to two experimental conditions (one emphasizing that there are no known cases or Ebola transmission in the United States, and the other that avoids this fact). The use of this experimental survey design provides a unique capacity to understand why one third of the U.S. adults (measured in a September 2014 survey) are concerned that there will be a large Ebola outbreak in the U.S. The participants in the surveys are being drawn from an academic-quality, probability-based online panel. In addition to the issue-specific value of knowing more about risk perceptions related to the Ebola outbreak, findings from this project will inform the design of communication messages related to risk issues that are often perceived to be psychologically distant by the American public, such as climate change and overpopulation. The specific mechanisms through which the study variables influence risk communication behaviors will also inform communication campaigns aimed at encouraging greater public engagement with risk information. In doing so, the proposed research will integrate theory from social psychology and risk communication to explore the utility of psychological distance in informing public communication about emerging public health risks.

该项目评估了美国公众对埃博拉疫情的看法，以及这些观点如何影响其与爆发有关的沟通行为，例如寻求信息，信息共享和信息处理。该项目着重于公众对这个问题的重要性和个人相关性的看法以及他们对爆发的情感反应以及他们是否认为这个问题在心理上遥远和抽象的程度上。这项研究涉及一项基于1,000名参与者的全国代表性样本的调查，他们被随机分配到两个实验条件（一个强调美国没有已知的病例或埃博拉病例传播，另一个避免了这一事实）。这种实验调查设计的使用提供了独特的能力，可以理解为什么美国成年人中有三分之一（在2014年9月的调查中衡量）担心美国将会发生大量的埃博拉病毒爆发。调查中的参与者是从学术质量的，概率的在线小组中汲取的。除了了解与埃博拉疫情相关的风险感知更多的特定问题价值外，该项目的发现还将为与风险问题有关的通信信息的设计提供信息，这些信息通常被美国公众在心理上被认为是气候变化和人口过多的。研究变量影响风险交流行为的具体机制还将为旨在鼓励公众参与风险信息的沟通活动提供信息。为此，拟议的研究将整合从社会心理学和风险交流中的理论，以探索心理距离在告知有关新兴公共卫生风险的公共交流中的实用性。