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Ten years ago, scholars suggested that risk communication was embarking on a new phase that would give increased attention to the social contexts that surround and encroach on public responses to risk information. A decade later, many researchers have answered the call, with several defining studies examining the social and psychological influences on risk communication. This article reviews risk communication research appearing in the published literature since 1996. Among studies, social trust, the social amplification of risk framework, and the affect heuristic figured prominently. Also common were studies examining the influence of risk in the mass media. Among these were content analyses of media coverage of risk, as well as investigations of possible effects resulting from coverage. The use of mental models was a dominant method for developing risk message content. Other studies examined the use of risk comparisons, narratives, and visuals in the production of risk messages. Research also examined how providing information about a risk's severity, social norms, and efficacy influenced communication behaviors and intentions to follow risk reduction measures. Methods for conducting public outreach in health risk communication rounded out the literature.

This study examines how credibility affects the way people process information and how they subsequently perceive risk. Three conceptual areas are brought together in this analysis: the psychometric model of risk perception, Eagly and Chaiken's heuristic-systematic information processing model, and Meyer's credibility index. Data come from a study of risk communication in the circumstance of state health department investigations of suspected cancer clusters (five cases, N = 696). Credibility is assessed for three information sources: state health departments, citizen groups, and industries involved in each case. Higher credibility for industry and the state directly predicts lower risk perception, whereas high credibility for citizen groups predicts greater risk perception. A path model shows that perceiving high credibility for industry and state-and perceiving low credibility for citizen groups-promotes heuristic processing, which in turn is a strong predictor of lower risk perception. Alternately, perceiving industry and the state to have low credibility also promotes greater systematic processing, which consistently leads to perception of greater risk. Between a one-fifth and one-third of the effect of credibility on risk perception is shown to be indirectly transmitted through information processing.

The global coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic has already had an enormous impact and will surely have profound consequences for many years to come. The authors reflect on three risk communication themes related to the pandemic: trust, tradeoffs, and preparedness. Trust is critically important during such a rapidly evolving event characterized by scientific uncertainty. Reflections focus on uncertainty communication, transparency, and long-term implications for trust in government and science. On tradeoffs, the positive and unintended negative effects of three key risk communication messages are considered (1) stay at home, (2) some groups are at higher risk, and (3) daily infections and deaths. The authors argue that greater attention to message 'tradeoffs' over 'effectiveness' and 'evaluation' over 'intuition' would help guide risk communicators under pressure. On preparedness, past infectious disease outbreak recommendations are examined. Although COVID-19 was inevitably 'unexpected', important preparedness actions were largely overlooked such as building key risk communication capacities.

No abstract

This article applies an existing five-item index for measuring source credibility in the context of environmental health-risk controversy. Survey data were gathered in five upstate New York communities facing environmental health-risk issues. Analysis of the five case studies and a combined dataset (N = 870) show that the credibility index was consistently reliable across all applications. Use of the resulting index is demonstrated through a comparison of the credibility of the New York State Department of Health (active in each case), the industries associated with each case, and the newspaper providing coverage of each case. The credibility index was used to predict risk judgments in a structural equation model. Overall, the analysis demonstrated that the credibility index performed consistently well across the five cases and illuminated important differences in each. As such, the index should be a useful addition to many environmental health and risk communication studies.

To understand what motivates people to attend to information about clinical trial enrollment, this study applies the risk information seeking and processing model (RISP) to explore potential differences in multichannel information seeking between (a) the general population and (b) cancer patients and their caregivers. The unique context of clinical trial enrollment grants this research an opportunity to study the RISP model in relation to a risk issue with varying relevance to the two samples as well as to investigate the role of emotion on information seeking. Key results suggested that risk perception and negative emotions had opposite effects on information seeking across the two samples; however, optimistic feelings had the most consistent, positive effects on seeking from all three types of information sources: interpersonal, traditional media, and online. These findings suggest important theoretical and practical implications in relation to promoting information seeking related to clinical trial enrollment among the general population as well as among specific patient groups.

Although public meetings are a frequent method of public participation and risk communication, little research investigates what citizens think about their use in environmental management. To examine satisfaction with public meetings, residents of two neighboring communities received questionnaires following a public meeting about a local landfill. Respondents included residents who did and did not attend the meeting. Irrespective of whether respondents had ever attended a public meeting, meeting expectations and perceptions of relational/informational communication at meetings, including whether respondents thought meeting organizers were genuinely interested in partici-pants' comments or meetings were informative, predicted satisfaction. Perceived risk associated with the recent meeting's topic and credibility of government agencies that frequently conduct meetings also predicted satisfaction.