| A. Research has shown that different threats push different psychological buttons. B. It's also important that the content and tone of communications speak to the intended audience. C. Giving people concrete, detailed actions to take can help reduce panic and overreaction when a new threat emerges. D. In response, psychologists are helping governments and other groups communicate real risk levels to the public to help make sure actions meet needs. E. The discipline is very straightforward: Identify the few things that people most need to know and figure out how to explain them in clear, trustworthy terms. F. We need to step back and allow for high emotions and missteps by people as long as we help them make well-informed decisions that eventually protect them. |
Framing risk, reducing panic
For four decades, psychologists have studied how people see risk and what causes them to overreact to terrorist attacks and other extreme events. Those misplaced reactions can lead to the shame of people and prevention of daily activities, causing a new set of problems on top of a current crisis.
Timely, honest communication from a source an audience considers credible is essential to containing fear, but governments have the tough job of explaining risk and telling people how to act without also seeding alarm.
Messages may be more helpful when delivered in creative formats. Visuals are very powerful. We can't just tell people things, we have to show them. When people are using the more primary part of their brain, visuals are more powerful than our higher order tools, including language.
People can understand just about anything if you do your job right as a communicator. That includes keeping it simple and communicating what people need to know, versus what is nice to know, expressing risk in numbers--"there's a 30 percent chance of rain"--and reminding people of the opportunity cost of waiting for more evidence.
Psychologists working in the field of risk communication assume we have too much control through our messaging.
