Warnings for Hurricane Irma: Trust of Warning Type and Perceptions of Self-Efficacy and Susceptibility

The purpose of this study was to examine the types of risk communication received about Hurricane Irma by a university sample, along with their perceptions of self-efficacy and susceptibility to the storm. Three days after the storm, 176 individuals completed a survey that asked about how they received alerts, the frequency of the alerts received, and their trust in the different risk communication mediums. Additionally, respondents completed a susceptibility measure, a self-efficacy measure, and a storm fear questionnaire. Results showed that most people received alerts from their university alert system or social media. Participants trusted risk communication the most from text alerts and radio reports, but the least from social media. Additionally, results showed that those who received more alerts also had higher levels of perceived susceptibility to the hurricane, except for those who received 16 to 20 alerts. Perceived self-efficacy was not related to the number of alerts received. These data suggest that although many urge the use of social media for spreading emergency warnings, people distrust social media for risk communication, and that this mistrust may be due to recent cases of misinformation spreading on various platforms. In addition, these data suggest that there may be a “critical point” of alerting, such that receiving more than 5 hurricane alerts may lead to significant increase in perceptions of susceptibility to the storm. Future research should investigate the critical point of effective alerting and the effect that trust in the different mediums of alert technology has on motivation to comply with the warning’s protective action recommendations.