Doctoral Dissertation Research in DRMS: Revealing the attitude strength attributes underlying trust in risk managers

DRMS 博士论文研究：揭示风险管理者信任背后的态度强度属性

基本信息

批准号：
1658075
负责人：
Katherine McComas
金额：
$ 2.35万
依托单位：
Cornell University
依托单位国家：
美国
项目类别：
Standard Grant
财政年份：
2017
资助国家：
美国
起止时间：
2017-02-01 至 2020-01-31
项目状态：
已结题

来源：
https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=1658075&HistoricalAwards=false
关键词：
Doctoral Dissertation Research DRMS Revealing

项目摘要

The proposed research will improve theoretical understanding of trust in risk communication by integrating considerations of attitude strength into the conceptualization and measurement of trust. While authorities managing environmental risk seek to earn trust from the public, they also want such trust to be strong. That is, they want trust bestowed upon them to last over time, endure bad news cycles, and positively influence people's thinking and behavior. Research in risk communication, however, rarely has focused on how these strength-related qualities of trust are gained or lost. Little is known about how these qualities can be measured and tested in statistical models. The lack of attention in this area is likely due to how the field has conceptualized trust, usually as a construct that inherently takes minimal cognitive effort, allowing people to make decisions about environmental risk without having to engage in complex calculations. The current project synthesizes theories and findings from multiple disciplines to take an alternative approach. The literature of attitude strength suggests that attitudes crystallized through rich knowledge and elaboration will exhibit consequences indicative of strong attitudes: they will persist over time, resist counter-persuasive messages, and strongly affect further information processing and behavior. To argue that trust is inherently based on effortless processing implies that trust cannot exhibit these strength-related consequences. Instead of dismissing the possibility of trust based on cognitively effortful processes, this research examines how communication processes can increase knowledge and elaboration about risk managers which, in turn, can yield stronger forms of trust. This new research propose a theoretical model to study attitude strength attributes of trust in risk communication. According to this model, two attitude-strength attributes (knowledge, elaboration) mediate the relationship between three communication process antecedents (direct interaction, media usage, and discussion with others) and four attitude strength consequences (persistence, resistance, impact on information processing, impact on behavior). To empirically test this alternative model of trust, the projects develops a two-wave online survey using a sample from a local community where there is a salient risk management issue and the three communicative processes can be reasonably observed. Residents within the area to be affected by an environmentally hazardous project will be invited to the online survey via post mail. Respondents will report their communication experiences with, and amount of knowledge and elaboration about a local environmental agency making decisions about the project. They will also rate their level of trust toward the agency in both waves of the survey, allowing measurement of the persistence of trust.

拟议的研究将通过将态度强度的考虑到信任的概念化和衡量来提高对风险交流的信任的理论理解。尽管管理环境风险的当局寻求从公众那里获得信任，但他们也希望这种信任坚强。也就是说，他们希望信任随着时间的流逝，忍受坏消息周期，并积极影响人们的思维和行为。但是，风险交流的研究很少关注这些与力量相关的信任素质如何获得或丢失。关于如何在统计模型中测量和测试这些质量知之甚少。该领域缺乏关注可能是由于该领域如何概念化信任，通常是一种固有的构造，这种结构固有地占据了最小的认知努力，从而使人们能够对环境风险做出决定，而无需进行复杂的计算。当前的项目综合了来自多个学科的理论和发现，以采用另一种方法。态度力量的文献表明，通过丰富的知识和阐述结晶的态度将表现出强烈态度的后果：随着时间的流逝，它们将持续存在，抵制反式信息，并强烈影响进一步的信息处理和行为。认为信任本质上是基于轻松的处理，这意味着信任不能表现出这些与力量相关的后果。本研究没有根据认知努力的过程来驳斥信任的可能性，而是研究了如何增加对风险管理者的知识和详细说明，从而又可以产生更强大的信任形式。这项新的研究提出了一种理论模型，以研究风险交流中信任的态度力量属性。根据该模型，两个态度 - 强度属性（知识，详细说明）调解了三个交流过程前因（直接互动，媒体用法和与他人的讨论）和四种态度力量后果（持久，抵抗，对信息处理的影响，对行为的影响）之间的关系。为了在经验上测试这种替代信任模型，这些项目使用当地社区的样本进行了两波在线调查，其中有一个显着的风险管理问题，并且可以合理地观察到这三个交流过程。该地区内将受到环境危险项目影响的居民将邀请通过Post Mail进行在线调查。受访者将报告他们与当地环境机构做出有关该项目的当地环境机构的沟通经验，知识和阐述的数量。他们还将在调查的两个浪潮中对代理机构的信任程度进行评分，从而衡量信任的持久性。