DHS and NSF Collaboration: General Social Survey Module on Citizen Preparedness for Terrorist Acts in the United States

国家意见研究中心（NORC）对公众对自然灾害和技术灾害风险信息的反应这一主题进行了50多年的社会科学研究，已经产生了一个有充分根据和经验验证的关于公共备灾和保护行动行为的有效风险沟通的中间理论（植根于符号相互作用的一般理论或SI）。尽管这一理论提供了丰富的理解，以及它所依赖的详尽的经验记录，但它需要进一步的验证、扩展和重组，以提高它对恐怖主义的适用性，并将公众如何、从谁那里获得信息以及行动动机方面发生的变化纳入其中。该理论需要扩展，以包括其他学科子专业或专题研究领域提出的额外结构和/或命题。最后，为了适应最近的社会变化，这个理论需要从线性到非线性的关于风险是如何沟通的假设进行经验重组。从1972年开始，美国民意调查中心每年或每两年对美国家庭进行定期访谈调查的“综合社会调查”（GSS）中，增加了“公共恐怖主义准备”的模块（20 ~ 25个项目）。调查模块将由一个多学科小组开发，并将提供防范公民恐怖主义的措施，并允许验证和扩展解决公民防范行动/不作为的根本原因的基本社会科学理论。这些信息将使决策者能够制定和实施最有效的公共教育运动，以提高国民对未来灾难或恐怖主义行为的准备水平。

SES- 0647911Tom SmithNational Opinion Research Center (NORC) Over fifty years of social science research on the topic of public response to information about risk of natural and technological hazards has produced a well-grounded and empirically validated mid-range theory (rooted in the general theory of symbolic interaction or SI) of effective hazards risk communication regarding public disaster preparedness and protective action behavior. Despite the rich understanding that this theory provides, and the elaborate empirical record on which it rests, it requires further validation, expansion, and restructuring both to improve it's applicability to terrorism and to incorporate changes that have occurred in how and from whom the public receives information and what motivates action. The theory needs to be expanded to include additional constructs and/or propositions suggested by other disciplinary sub-specializations or topical research areas. And, finally, the theory needs to be empirically re-structured from linear to non-linear assumptions about how risk is actually communicated in order to accommodate recent societal changes. This project adds a module (20-25 items) on public terrorism preparedness to the General Social Survey (GSS), a regular, ongoing interview survey of U.S households conducted by the National Opinion Research Center annually or biennially since 1972. The survey module would be developed by a multi-disciplinary team and would provide measures of citizen terrorism preparedness and allow for validation and expansion of the fundamental social scientific theory that addresses the root causes for citizen preparedness actions/inactions. This information will enable the policymakers to craft and implement the most effective public education campaigns to foster ever increasing national levels of citizen readiness for future disasters or acts of terrorism.