Communicating with the public about marauding terrorist firearms attacks: Results from a survey experiment on factors influencing intention to "Run, Hide, Tell" in the United Kingdom and Denmark

TY - JOUR

T1 - Communicating with the public about marauding terrorist firearms attacks

T2 - Results from a survey experiment on factors influencing intention to "Run, Hide, Tell" in the United Kingdom and Denmark

AU - Pearce, Julia M.

AU - Lindekilde, Lasse

AU - Parker, David

AU - Rogers, M. Brooke

PY - 2019/8

Y1 - 2019/8

N2 - Effective risk communication is an integral part of responding to terrorism, but until recently there has been very little pre-event communication in a European context to provide advice to the public on how to protect themselves during an attack. Following terrorist attacks involving mass shootings in Paris, France in November 2015, the UK National Police Chiefs’ Council released a ‘Stay Safe’ film and leaflet that advises the public to ‘run’, ‘hide’ and ‘tell’ in the event of a firearms or weapons attack. However, other countries including Denmark do not provide preparedness information of this kind, in large part because of concern about scaring the public. In this survey experiment, 3003 UK and Danish participants were randomly assigned to one of three conditions: no information; a leaflet intervention; and a film intervention to examine the impact of ‘Run, Hide, Tell’ advice on perceptions about terrorism, the security services and intended responses to a hypothetical terrorist firearms attack. Results demonstrate important benefits of pre-event communication in relation to enhancing trust, encouraging protective health behaviours and discouraging potentially dangerous actions. However, these findings also suggest that future communications should address perceived response costs and target specific problem behaviours. Cross-national similarities in response suggest this advice is suitable for adaptation in other countries.

AB - Effective risk communication is an integral part of responding to terrorism, but until recently there has been very little pre-event communication in a European context to provide advice to the public on how to protect themselves during an attack. Following terrorist attacks involving mass shootings in Paris, France in November 2015, the UK National Police Chiefs’ Council released a ‘Stay Safe’ film and leaflet that advises the public to ‘run’, ‘hide’ and ‘tell’ in the event of a firearms or weapons attack. However, other countries including Denmark do not provide preparedness information of this kind, in large part because of concern about scaring the public. In this survey experiment, 3003 UK and Danish participants were randomly assigned to one of three conditions: no information; a leaflet intervention; and a film intervention to examine the impact of ‘Run, Hide, Tell’ advice on perceptions about terrorism, the security services and intended responses to a hypothetical terrorist firearms attack. Results demonstrate important benefits of pre-event communication in relation to enhancing trust, encouraging protective health behaviours and discouraging potentially dangerous actions. However, these findings also suggest that future communications should address perceived response costs and target specific problem behaviours. Cross-national similarities in response suggest this advice is suitable for adaptation in other countries.

KW - Counterterrorism

KW - protection motivation theory

KW - risk communication

KW - risk perception

KW - terrorism

UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85070350450&partnerID=8YFLogxK

U2 - 10.1111/risa.13301

DO - 10.1111/risa.13301

M3 - Article

SN - 0272-4332

VL - 39

SP - 1675

EP - 1694

JO - Risk Analysis

JF - Risk Analysis

IS - 8

ER -