SGER: Financial Crisis: A Longitudinal Study of Public Response

美国当前的金融挑战为在持续的经济危机中研究公众风险认知和风险相关行为提供了一个独特的机会，这场危机威胁着广大美国人的生活质量。在美国，很少有紧急情况影响到这么多人。目前的情况是一个丰富的机会，因为它是实时发生的，并且是高度动态的，涉及我们经济的许多参与者和部门。因此，它提供了将金融威胁与恐怖主义等其他灾难进行比较的机会。公众吗?随着媒体报道以及政府和私营部门的行动，美国的观念和与风险相关的行为似乎可能随着时间的推移而改变。这项研究将调查人们如何看待和应对这场危机，他们正在关注什么信息，他们信任谁（或不信任谁），以及这场危机如何影响未来的计划。风险感知研究的历史和核心挑战之一是很难检查人们如何？在实时紧急情况中的态度和行为会随着时间的推移而改变。最接近的方法通常是由国家民意调查组织在一段时间内进行的一系列横断面调查。该项目将在此次危机期间定期对一组受访者进行为期数月的跟踪调查。将在风险感知、风险的社会放大、影响启发式和计算能力之间建立理论联系。这项计划中的研究调查了金融危机对就业、储蓄、投资、退休、未来机会和生活质量的威胁。它还考察了信任、感知控制和危机可预测性等问题。后果和情绪，如恐惧、愤怒、担心和悲伤。此外，调查问卷还涉及人们已经采取、正在采取或计划采取的行为，以回应他们从各种信息源中了解到的情况。这项研究将调查人们为获取有关危机的信息所花费的时间，以及信息来源。在此期间，还将跟踪其他现象，如股票市场，房地产市场，媒体报道和关键事件（如救援计划，总统辩论，主要银行倒闭），以寻找事件发生与公众看法和行为变化之间可能的相关性。商业领袖、财务顾问和管理人员将从更好地理解他们的政策和实践的效果中直接受益。风险评估、风险沟通和风险感知等领域的研究人员会发现，风险的社会放大分析、影响启发式和计算方法对他们自己的研究很有用。

The current financial challenges in the United States represent a unique opportunity to study public risk perception and risk-related behaviors in the midst of an on-going economic crisis that threatens the quality of life of a wide spectrum of Americans. Few emergencies within the U.S. have affected so many people. The current situation is a rich opportunity because it is occurring real-time, and is highly dynamic, involving many players and sectors of our economy. As a result, it allows a chance to compare financial threats with other disasters such as terrorism. The public?s perceptions and risk-related behaviors seem likely to change over time in response to media coverage and government and private sector actions.The study will examine how people perceive and react to this crisis, what information they are attending to, whom they trust (or do not trust), and how this crisis is affecting future plans. One of the historical and central challenges of risk perception research has been the difficulty of examining how people?s attitudes and behavior in real-time emergencies change over time. The closest approximation is usually a series of cross-sectional surveys over time conducted by national polling organizations. This project will track a panel of respondents during this crisis at regular intervals and over a period of months. Theoretical links will be made between risk perception, social amplification of risk, the affect heuristic and numeracy.The planned study investigates perceived threats from the financial crisis to jobs, savings, investments, retirement, future opportunities and quality of life. It also examines issues of trust, perceived control and predictability of the crisis?s consequences and emotions such as fear, anger, worry and sadness. Additionally, the questionnaire addresses reported behaviors people have taken, are taking, or plan to take in response to what they are learning from a variety of information sources. The study will examine the time people are devoting to acquire information about the crisis, and from what sources. Other phenomena will also be followed during this period such as the stock market, housing markets, media coverage, and pivotal events (e.g. rescue plan, presidential debates, major bank failures) to look for possible correlations of event occurrences with changes in public perceptions and behavior. Business leaders, financial advisors, and administrators stand to directly benefit from a better understanding of the effects of their policies and practices. Researchers in areas such as risk assessment, risk communication, and risk perception will find the analysis of social amplification of risk, the affect heuristic and numeracy useful for their own investigations.