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

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他们在信息寻求、信息共享和信息处理等与疫情相关的沟通行为。该项目的重点是公众对这一问题的重要性和个人相关性的看法以及他们对疫情的情绪反应对这些观点的影响程度，以及他们是否认为这一问题在心理上是遥远和抽象的。这项研究涉及一项基于具有全国代表性的1000名参与者样本的调查，他们被随机分配到两种实验条件下(一种强调在美国没有已知病例或埃博拉传播，另一种强调避免这一事实)。这一实验性调查设计的使用提供了一种独特的能力，可以理解为什么三分之一的美国成年人(在2014年9月的一次调查中测量)担心美国将爆发大规模埃博拉疫情。调查的参与者来自一个学术质量、基于概率的在线小组。除了更多地了解与埃博拉疫情相关的风险认知这一特定问题的价值外，该项目的发现还将为设计与风险问题相关的沟通信息提供参考，这些问题通常被美国公众视为心理上遥远的问题，如气候变化和人口过剩。研究变量影响风险沟通行为的具体机制也将为旨在鼓励公众更多地参与风险信息的沟通活动提供信息。在此过程中，本研究将整合社会心理学和风险传播的理论，探索心理距离在公共传播中告知新出现的公共健康风险的效用。

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.