Warning citizens; influencing self-reliance in emergencies

Abstract

An important part of the response to an emergency is making sure that people are able to take themselves and others to a place of safety. To make people aware that there is an emergency, there are three steps that have to be taken: there has to be a warning that something is going on, people have to perceive and process that warning, and finally, people have to perform the self-reliant behaviour that will get them to a safe place. Self-reliance can be increased when people are motivated to comply with instructions that are given in an emergency. This thesis is about finding out what factors influence self-reliance in an emergency and how these influencing factors can be investigated so that the total effectiveness of a warning system can be determined. The research question is: How can the way in which a new or existing warning system effectively influences citizens’ self-reliance in an emergency be investigated? A model was constructed which shows the steps of warning information processing in which self-reliance can be influenced. This model is called the contextual human information processing model, as it shows the influences on self-reliance in terms of the interactions between cognition, affective states and situational variables. The model looks at issues inside (HIP, Personal characteristics and behaviour) and outside (situational characteristics and warning) the human. The model produces a list of influencing factors that have to be investigated when determining the effectiveness of a warning system.