SGER: Financial Crisis: A Longitudinal Study of Public Response

美国当前的金融挑战是一个独特的机会，可以在持续的经济危机中研究公众的风险认知和风险相关行为，这场危机威胁着广泛的美国人的生活质量。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，是高度动态的，涉及我们经济的许多参与者和部门。因此，它使人们有机会将金融威胁与恐怖主义等其他灾难进行比较。 公众？这项研究将考察人们如何看待和应对这场危机，他们关注什么样的信息，他们信任（或不信任）谁，以及这场危机如何影响未来的计划。风险认知研究的历史和核心挑战之一是很难研究人们如何？人们在实时紧急情况下的态度和行为会随着时间的推移而改变。最接近的近似值通常是由国家民意调查机构进行的一系列跨部门调查。该项目将在这场危机期间定期跟踪一组答复者，为期数月。将在风险感知、风险的社会放大、情感启发和计算能力之间建立理论联系。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。它还探讨了信任问题，感知控制和危机的可预测性？的后果和情绪，如恐惧，愤怒，担心和悲伤。此外，调查问卷还涉及人们根据从各种信息来源中了解到的情况已经采取、正在采取或计划采取的行为。这项研究将调查人们花在获取危机信息上的时间，以及从哪些来源获取信息。在此期间，还将跟踪其他现象，如股票市场，住房市场，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感知和行为变化的可能相关性。企业领导者、财务顾问和管理人员将直接受益于更好地了解他们的政策和做法的影响。风险评估、风险沟通和风险感知等领域的研究人员会发现，对风险的社会放大、情感启发和计算能力的分析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.