The impact of hazard naming in Wireless Emergency Alerts: enhancing protective action decision making and organizational attitudes

Wireless Emergency Alerts are an important way people learn about impending threats. Yet, these messages typically lack information about the hazard that will endanger people. In this study, we examine how naming the hazard and its associated cues in a Wireless Emergency Alert influences people’s perceptions that help them make protective action decisions, including understanding, belief, personalization, deciding, response efficacy, and self-efficacy. We also measure the extent to which naming the hazard and its cues affects an organization’s reputation and perceived transparency. To do so, we conduct a 2 (message type: named hazard vs. unnamed hazard) × 3 (hazard type: civil disturbance, dam failure, and wildfire) experiment with 579 Sacramento, CA residents. Results show that regardless of hazard type, naming the hazard and its cues increases understanding and favorable attitudes towards the organization. We also find that in the case of wildfires, when the recommended actions are perceived as difficult, including the name of the hazard and its cues increases people’s confidence in their ability to act and make decisions. We discuss the implications of our findings for both risk communication practice and theory, as well as future research directions for wildfire warning message design specifically.