Abstract

Many experts believe the risk of nuclear war today is the highest it’s been in generations. Yet much of the public has little awareness of nuclear threats and is ill-prepared to take the actions needed to save lives, including their own. Using a survey experiment on a diverse national sample of U.S. citizens fielded across two time periods, this study evaluates the impact of risk communication regarding nuclear weapons threat. We measure the effectiveness of nuclear preparedness messages across formats, finding infographics to be the most effective. Importantly, we also find that any message exposure improves recall of the recommended action, confidence, and message acceptance, with these shifts positively impacting subsequent behavioral intentions.

摘要

许多专家认为，今天发生核战争的风险是几代人以来最高的。然而，大部分公众对核威胁知之甚少，并且没有准备好采取必要的行动来挽救生命，包括他们自己的生命。本研究使用对跨越两个时间段的美国公民的不同国家样本进行的调查实验，评估风险沟通对核武器威胁的影响。我们衡量各种格式的核准备信息的有效性，发现信息图表最有效。重要的是，我们还发现，任何消息曝光都会提高对推荐操作的回忆、信心和消息接受度，这些转变对后续的行为意图产生积极影响。