RAPID:Investigating Media Dependencies, Mitigation Behavior, and Information Processing in the Time Leading up to Hurricane Dorian

考虑到对媒体的依赖，以及在做出理性决策之前可能需要减少不确定性，大多数人会在大规模灾难发生之前、期间和之后立即从可信的媒体来源获取信息。然而，与此同时，人们对即将到来的危机条件下的媒体依赖，以及信息使用模式对情绪反应、风险感知、对风险信息的关注以及减轻风险的动机的影响知之甚少。虽然在过去的研究中推测，但也不清楚媒体依赖和负面情绪反应是否与特质反刍应对方式有某种联系，同样不清楚的是，认知需求是否会激发信息寻求和反应。为了解决文献中的这些不足，本研究探讨了在2019年9月袭击美国东南部的多里安飓风的背景下，对媒体的依赖、应对策略、处理倾向、风险认知和缓解动机之间的相互作用。这些发现将有助于研究人员更好地了解飓风期间的媒体依赖，并有助于应急管理机构考虑信息的设计和放置。本研究通过评估特质加工特征、媒介使用、情绪反应和缓解行为之间的联系，填补了社会科学文献在危机反应方面的重大空白。这项研究是对受飓风多里安影响的大西洋沿岸地区的1000名居民进行的在线调查。参与者按邮政编码进行识别，他们来自佛罗里达州、佐治亚州、南卡罗来纳州和北卡罗来纳州的社区。他们对满足他们的认知特质需求和他们的反刍加工倾向的项目作出反应。与会者回答了关于他们对媒体的依赖和反应的问题，包括不同媒体在获取飓风信息方面的相对重要性、他们寻求的具体信息结果、他们如何收到最初的警报、他们对这些信息的关注程度、以及他们对政府和媒体组织向他们提供的信息是否充分的看法。在回应这些警告的行为方面，参与者被问及他们制定的任何缓解或疏散计划、他们的家受到的任何损害、他们用来管理与事件相关的压力的具体应对策略、他们对与飓风相关的风险程度的看法，以及在事件发生前后处理他们情绪健康的项目。该奖项反映了美国国家科学基金会的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的知识价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

Considering media dependency and the likely need to reduce uncertainty before making rational decisions, most individuals will seek to acquire information from trusted media sources in the time leading up to, during, and immediately following a large scale disaster. Yet at the same time, little is known about media reliance under conditions of impending crises, and the effect that patterns of information use will have on emotional responses, risk perception, the attention devoted to risk messaging, and motivation to mitigate. While speculated in past research, it is also unclear whether media reliance and negative emotional responses are somehow linked to trait ruminative coping styles, and it is equally unclear if need for cognition motivates information seeking and response. To address these deficiencies in the literature, this study examines the interplay between reliance on media, coping strategies, processing tendencies, risk perceptions, and motivation to mitigate in the context of Hurricane Dorian, which struck the southeastern United States in September 2019. The findings will be useful to researchers hoping to better understand media dependencies during hurricanes, and to emergency management agencies in their consideration of message design and placement. The research fills a significant gap in the social science literature on crisis response by evaluating the links between trait processing characteristics, media use, emotional responses, and mitigation behaviors. The study is an online survey distributed to 1,000 residents of Atlantic coastal areas impacted by Hurricane Dorian. Participants are identified by zip code and drawn from communities in Florida, Georgia, South Carolina, and North Carolina. They respond to items addressing their trait need for cognition and their tendencies toward ruminative processing. Participants respond to questions on their media dependencies and responses, including the relative importance of varying media in obtaining information about the hurricane, the specific informational outcomes they sought, how they received first alerts, the degree of attention they allocated to these messages, and perceptions of the adequacy of information provided to them by government and media organizations. In terms of behaviors in response to these warnings, participants are asked about any mitigation or evacuation plans they had in place, any damage to their home that occurred, specific coping strategies they relied upon to manage stress associated with the event, their perceptions of the degree of risk associated with the hurricane, and items addressing their emotional well-being before and after the event.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.