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Effective Responder Communication Improves Efficiency and Psychological Outcomes in a Mass Decontamination Field Experiment: Implications for Public Behaviour in the Event of a Chemical Incident

The risk of incidents involving mass decontamination in response to a chemical, biological, radiological, or nuclear release has increased in recent years, due to technological advances, and the willingness of terrorists to use unconventional weapons. Planning for such incidents has focused on the t...

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Detalles Bibliográficos
Autores principales: Carter, Holly, Drury, John, Amlôt, Richard, Rubin, G. James, Williams, Richard
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: Public Library of Science 2014
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3942378/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/24595097
http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0089846
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author Carter, Holly
Drury, John
Amlôt, Richard
Rubin, G. James
Williams, Richard
author_facet Carter, Holly
Drury, John
Amlôt, Richard
Rubin, G. James
Williams, Richard
author_sort Carter, Holly
collection PubMed
description The risk of incidents involving mass decontamination in response to a chemical, biological, radiological, or nuclear release has increased in recent years, due to technological advances, and the willingness of terrorists to use unconventional weapons. Planning for such incidents has focused on the technical issues involved, rather than on psychosocial concerns. This paper presents a novel experimental study, examining the effect of three different responder communication strategies on public experiences and behaviour during a mass decontamination field experiment. Specifically, the research examined the impact of social identity processes on the relationship between effective responder communication, and relevant outcome variables (e.g. public compliance, public anxiety, and co-operative public behaviour). All participants (n = 111) were asked to visualise that they had been involved in an incident involving mass decontamination, before undergoing the decontamination process, and receiving one of three different communication strategies: 1) ‘Theory-based communication’: Health-focused explanations about decontamination, and sufficient practical information; 2) ‘Standard practice communication’: No health-focused explanations about decontamination, sufficient practical information; 3) ‘Brief communication’: No health-focused explanations about decontamination, insufficient practical information. Four types of data were collected: timings of the decontamination process; observational data; and quantitative and qualitative self-report data. The communication strategy which resulted in the most efficient progression of participants through the decontamination process, as well as the fewest observations of non-compliance and confusion, was that which included both health-focused explanations about decontamination and sufficient practical information. Further, this strategy resulted in increased perceptions of responder legitimacy and increased identification with responders, which in turn resulted in higher levels of expected compliance during a real incident, and increased willingness to help other members of the public. This study shows that an understanding of the social identity approach facilitates the development of effective responder communication strategies for incidents involving mass decontamination.
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spelling pubmed-39423782014-03-06 Effective Responder Communication Improves Efficiency and Psychological Outcomes in a Mass Decontamination Field Experiment: Implications for Public Behaviour in the Event of a Chemical Incident Carter, Holly Drury, John Amlôt, Richard Rubin, G. James Williams, Richard PLoS One Research Article The risk of incidents involving mass decontamination in response to a chemical, biological, radiological, or nuclear release has increased in recent years, due to technological advances, and the willingness of terrorists to use unconventional weapons. Planning for such incidents has focused on the technical issues involved, rather than on psychosocial concerns. This paper presents a novel experimental study, examining the effect of three different responder communication strategies on public experiences and behaviour during a mass decontamination field experiment. Specifically, the research examined the impact of social identity processes on the relationship between effective responder communication, and relevant outcome variables (e.g. public compliance, public anxiety, and co-operative public behaviour). All participants (n = 111) were asked to visualise that they had been involved in an incident involving mass decontamination, before undergoing the decontamination process, and receiving one of three different communication strategies: 1) ‘Theory-based communication’: Health-focused explanations about decontamination, and sufficient practical information; 2) ‘Standard practice communication’: No health-focused explanations about decontamination, sufficient practical information; 3) ‘Brief communication’: No health-focused explanations about decontamination, insufficient practical information. Four types of data were collected: timings of the decontamination process; observational data; and quantitative and qualitative self-report data. The communication strategy which resulted in the most efficient progression of participants through the decontamination process, as well as the fewest observations of non-compliance and confusion, was that which included both health-focused explanations about decontamination and sufficient practical information. Further, this strategy resulted in increased perceptions of responder legitimacy and increased identification with responders, which in turn resulted in higher levels of expected compliance during a real incident, and increased willingness to help other members of the public. This study shows that an understanding of the social identity approach facilitates the development of effective responder communication strategies for incidents involving mass decontamination. Public Library of Science 2014-03-04 /pmc/articles/PMC3942378/ /pubmed/24595097 http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0089846 Text en © 2014 Carter et al http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are properly credited.
spellingShingle Research Article
Carter, Holly
Drury, John
Amlôt, Richard
Rubin, G. James
Williams, Richard
Effective Responder Communication Improves Efficiency and Psychological Outcomes in a Mass Decontamination Field Experiment: Implications for Public Behaviour in the Event of a Chemical Incident
title Effective Responder Communication Improves Efficiency and Psychological Outcomes in a Mass Decontamination Field Experiment: Implications for Public Behaviour in the Event of a Chemical Incident
title_full Effective Responder Communication Improves Efficiency and Psychological Outcomes in a Mass Decontamination Field Experiment: Implications for Public Behaviour in the Event of a Chemical Incident
title_fullStr Effective Responder Communication Improves Efficiency and Psychological Outcomes in a Mass Decontamination Field Experiment: Implications for Public Behaviour in the Event of a Chemical Incident
title_full_unstemmed Effective Responder Communication Improves Efficiency and Psychological Outcomes in a Mass Decontamination Field Experiment: Implications for Public Behaviour in the Event of a Chemical Incident
title_short Effective Responder Communication Improves Efficiency and Psychological Outcomes in a Mass Decontamination Field Experiment: Implications for Public Behaviour in the Event of a Chemical Incident
title_sort effective responder communication improves efficiency and psychological outcomes in a mass decontamination field experiment: implications for public behaviour in the event of a chemical incident
topic Research Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3942378/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/24595097
http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0089846
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