Trust, confidence, familiarity, and support for land-based recirculating aquaculture facilities.

Surveys in three U.S. localities (n = 523) with proposed or existing land-based aquaculture facilities probed trust's relationship with perceived net benefits and public intentions to cooperate with siting of this novel technology. The trust, confidence, and cooperation (TCC) model posits that shared values shape willingness to be vulnerable to others (trust), while past performance shapes certainty that others will behave as expected (confidence). Trust affects confidence given moral outweighs performance information, possibly varying by familiarity. Other research suggests that trust shapes benefit and risk perceptions, which drive cooperation (defined here by potentially observable behavior: voting on siting, trying to influence government decisions directly or through citizen groups, and buying or eating facility fish). Confirmatory factor analyses suggested that a two-factor model fit the trust/confidence measures better than a one-factor model or a two-factor model without inter-factor correlation, indicating (despite a strong association of trust and confidence) that they are empirically distinct. Path analyses suggested that trust had stronger direct effects on cooperation than did confidence, reflecting the TCC notion that moral information underlying trust judgments is more influential, and stronger indirect effects through benefit-risk judgments. Model fit was better than if the benefit-risk mediator was omitted. Trust in government had a small direct effect on cooperation and confidence, but a large effect on trust in the corporation, and model fit was much worse if any of these paths was omitted. Low familiarity with the project lowered both model fit and trust-confidence association. We discuss implications for risk analysis theory and practice.

Pragmatic and (or) Constitutive? On the Foundations of Contemporary Risk Communication Research.

A diffuse and interdisciplinary field, risk communication research, is founded on how we understand the process and purpose of communication more generally. To that end, this article outlines two fundamental functions of risk communication: (1) a pragmatic function, in which senders direct messages at audiences (and vice versa), with various intended (and sometimes unintended) effects; and (2) a constitutive function, in which messages re(create) what we mean by "risk" in a given social context, including how we can, and/or should relate to it. Although representing distinct epistemological and theoretical social scientific traditions, these functions necessarily coexist in a broader understanding of risk communication, including its so-called "effectiveness." The article concludes by considering how we might enact this fuller understanding of risk communication's dual functions through engagement in collaborative, sustainability science-oriented research.

Sizing Up a Superstorm: Exploring the Role of Recalled Experience and Attribution of Responsibility in Judgments of Future Hurricane Risk.

Research suggests that hurricane-related risk perception is a critical predictor of behavioral response, such as evacuation. Less is known, however, about the precursors of these subjective risk judgments, especially when time has elapsed from a focal event. Drawing broadly from the risk communication, social psychology, and natural hazards literature, and specifically from concepts adapted from the risk information seeking and processing model and the protective action decision model, we examine how individuals' distant recollections, including attribution of responsibility for the effects of a storm, attitude toward relevant information, and past hurricane experience, relate to risk judgment for a future, similar event. The present study reports on a survey involving U.S. residents in Connecticut, New Jersey, and New York (n = 619) impacted by Hurricane Sandy. While some results confirm past findings, such as that hurricane experience increases risk judgment, others suggest additional complexity, such as how various types of experience (e.g., having evacuated vs. having experienced losses) may heighten or attenuate individual-level judgments of responsibility. We suggest avenues for future research, as well as implications for federal agencies involved in severe weather/natural hazard forecasting and communication with public audiences.

Perception of risk and the attribution of responsibility for accidents.

Accidents, one often hears, "happen"; we accept, and even expect, that they will be part of daily life. But in situations in which injury or death result, judgments of responsibility become critical. How might our perceptions of risk influence the ways in which we allocate responsibility for an accident? Drawing from attribution and risk perception theory, this study investigates how perceived controllability and desirability of risk, in addition to perceived danger and recreational risk-taking, relate to attributions of responsibility for the cause of unintentional injury in a unique setting: U.S. national parks. Three parks, Mount Rainier, Olympic, and Delaware Water Gap, provide the setting for this survey-based study, which considers how park visitors (N = 447) attribute responsibility for the cause of a hypothetical visitor accident. Results suggest that respondents tended to make more internal (i.e., related to characteristics of the victim), rather than external (i.e., related to characteristics of the park, or park management) attributions. As respondents viewed park-related risk as controllable, they were more likely to attribute the cause of the accident to the victim. Moreover, among other significant variables, having experienced a similar accident predicted lower internal causal attribution. Opportunities for future research linking risk perception and attribution variables, as well as practical implications for the management of public outdoor settings, are presented.

In backyards, on front lawns: examining informal risk communication and communicators.

Risk communicators are often envisioned as government officials, public relations practitioners, or health workers. Yet much of the public's risk information comes from informal messages and unofficial carriers. Referred to in this study as "informal risk communicators" (IRCs), these individuals are often service workers who relay risk information to public audiences, though often outside of their formal job descriptions. Literatures in the health communication, science and technology studies, and risk communication fields have considered ideas relevant to explaining these individuals, and the risk communication work they perform. To further explore this category of individuals, this study examines the communicative practices of commercial pesticide applicators, using both in-depth interviews and surveys. Through their interactions with clients, these individuals offer care, as well as project expertise and identity; however, the extent to which this work is recognized and validated is less clear. Both applied and theoretical implications of this research are considered.

Support for deer herd reduction on offshore Islands of Maine, U.S.A.

Over the past three decades, citizens of Maine in the northeastern United States have experienced increasing blacklegged tick (Ixodes scapularis) abundance and rising incidence of Lyme and other tick-borne diseases. White-tailed deer (Odocoileus virginianus) overabundance has been considered one cause of the high incidence of tick-borne diseases on offshore islands of New England. Most of Maine's 15 offshore, unbridged island communities have a history of concern about ticks, Lyme disease, and white-tailed deer overabundance, but have been challenged to keep deer numbers down through hunting or culls. This history has led to perennial, often divisive community debates about whether and how to reduce the size of their deer herds. In 2016 we conducted a convenience sample survey of year-round and summer residents of Maine's offshore islands to quantify the level of concern about Lyme disease, and assess the motivations and level of support for deer herd reduction. Among respondents, 84 % agreed Lyme disease was a problem on their island and 61 % supported deer herd reduction. Agreement that Lyme disease was a problem was associated with having acquired tick-borne disease as well as with tick bites without disease. Respondents ranked deer overabundance as a top cause of tick abundance and tick-borne disease and supported deer herd reduction as an approach to reduce the risk of Lyme disease. Other problems associated with deer overabundance (vehicle collisions, damage to landscaping, and damage to forests) also motivated support for deer reduction. Approval of doe permits, an expanded archery season, and sharpshooting as reduction methods was greater than an expanded firearms season. Respondents felt responsibility for tick control fell to the town for the most part, and recognized that multiple factors have contributed to the tick problem in Maine, not just deer.

Public understanding of One Health messages: The role of temporal framing.

Building on research in motivated reasoning and framing in science communication, we examine how messages that vary attribution of responsibility (human vs animal) and temporal orientation (now vs in the next 10 years) for wildlife disease risk influence individuals' conservation intentions. We conducted a randomized experiment with a nationally representative sample of US adults ( N = 355), which revealed that for people low in biospheric concern, messages that highlighted both human responsibility for and the imminent nature of the risk failed to enhance conservation intentions compared with messages highlighting animal responsibility. However, when messages highlighting human responsibility placed the risk in a temporally distal frame, conservation intentions increased among people low in biospheric concern. We assess the underlying mechanism of this effect and discuss the value of temporal framing in overcoming motivated skepticism to improve science communication.