Linking the Heuristic-Systematic Model and Depth of Processing

Abstract

This study draws a nexus between heuristic-systematic information processing and the theory of planned behavior through a model of risk information seeking and processing. The model proposes that the form of information processing individuals apply to risk information from the media and other sources affects beliefs, evaluations, and attitudes considered important to making judgments about performing risk-reducing behaviors. This study found that deeper, more systematic processing of risk information is positively related to evaluation strength, attitude strength, and the number of strongly held behavioral beliefs actively considered by respondents when thinking about environmental hazards. The relationships were consistent, appearing across two communities and three risks (two health risks and one ecological risk), and held up under multiple statistical controls.Risk communication campaigns usually are designed to encourage persons to develop changes in risk-related behaviors. In pursuit of this goal, researchers typically employ risk information (e.g., a message) as an independent variable and evaluate the effect of the stimulus on individuals' attitudes and behavior. Inherent in this approach is the assumption that information does something to individuals. If one can illuminate that causal process, goes the argument, one can then design message interventions that will cause people to buckle their seatbelts, recycle, or adopt low-fat diets. However, this topdown, sender-oriented approach runs counter to suggestions by many risk perception researchers that risk communication scholars should consider receiver-oriented, bottom-up approaches (see e.g.,

Linking Risk Messages to Information Seeking and Processing

“…To help validate the concept and measurement of systematic processing within the RISP model, and to examine the proposed relationship of processing to the structure of subsequent beliefs (Griffin et al, 1999), Griffin, Neuwirth, Giese, and Dunwoody (2002) examined the relationship between the RISP model and Ajzen's TPB. Consistent with RISP predictions, they found that systematic processing of risk information was positively related to attitude strength, evaluation strength, and the number of strongly held behavioral beliefs across three environmental risks and among residents of two metropolitan areas, results that are consistent with RISP model predictions based on Eagly and Chaiken (1993).…”

“…10 Kahlor (2007) showed a positive zero-order relationship between worry and seeking. 11 Kahlor and Rosenthal (2009) Griffin et al (2002), however, found that channel beliefs related consistently to the apparent outcomes of processing, including the strength of cognitive structure regarding risk-related behaviors. 13 There is also some initial evidence that the communication-related variables in the RISP model might be applicable to individuals' seeking and processing of information about other issues, such…”

“…Other analyses of the dynamics of the model using these data can be found in Griffin et al (2002Griffin et al ( , 2004a and in Kahlor et al (2003).…”

The antecedent role of personal environmental values in the relationships among trust in companies, information processing and risk perception

“…The HSM assumes that people will engage in a systematic mode when they are not confident about the judgements they reach through the heuristic mode and when they want to maximise confidence in their judgement; in the literature this kind of motivation is called accuracy motivation (Chaiken 1980(Chaiken , 1987. Therefore, past research has shown that systematic processing of risk information may lead to more stable attitudes that are resistant to change (Griffin et al 2002;Yang et al 2010). …”

Making sense of food risk information : the case of organic food

“…It was found that social norm and information seeking activities were most strongly related to information sharing. In the food domain the RISP-model has been tested on eating Great Lakes fish (Griffin, Neuwirth, Giese & Dunwoody, 2002;Griffin et al, 2004) examining the risks of eating poisoned fish and potential parasitic infection from drinking tap water. These studies, however, focused on information insufficiency and information processing behaviour, not on information sharing or seeking.…”