Public inactivity has been addressed by scholars across different academic disciplines. Risk communication and behaviour change is difficult and costly due to limited attention to various messages in the public sphere. Crises pose particular challenges if organisations are to communicate effectively with the public to protect them from potential risks. The present study attempts to better understand what makes the public inactive when faced with a crisis. Specifically, I focus on how people perceive a crisis and the reasons they remain inactive during the crisis. Using 28 in-depth interviews with Korean citizens during two food-related crises, this study revealed that people interpreted the crisis within a broader social context, made underlying assumptions in understanding the crisis and believed what the media vividly showed. The findings also showed that people remained inactive because they avoided dealing with risks due to being distracted by their daily lives, they trusted social systems to manage the problem, and they felt they had high efficacy in resolving the crisis although they did not expect to make fundamental changes in the long-run.

跨学科的学者已经解决了公众不活跃的问题。由于对公共领域中各种消息的关注有限，因此风险沟通和行为改变既困难又代价高昂。如果组织要与公众进行有效沟通以保护他们免受潜在风险的影响，那么危机就构成了特殊的挑战。本研究试图更好地理解是什么使公众在面对危机时变得不活跃。具体来说，我重点关注人们如何看待危机以及他们在危机期间保持不活跃的原因。通过在两次与食品有关的危机中对韩国公民的28次深度访谈，这项研究表明人们在更广泛的社会背景下解释了这场危机，在理解危机方面做出了基本假设，并相信媒体生动地展现了什么。