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Effective responder communication, perceived responder legitimacy, and group identification predict public cooperation and compliance in a mass decontamination visualization experiment
Author(s) -
Carter Holly,
Drury John,
Amlôt Richard,
Rubin G. James,
Williams Richard
Publication year - 2015
Publication title -
journal of applied social psychology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.822
H-Index - 111
eISSN - 1559-1816
pISSN - 0021-9029
DOI - 10.1111/jasp.12286
Subject(s) - human decontamination , psychology , health information , social identity theory , identification (biology) , compliance (psychology) , legitimacy , social psychology , public health , information dissemination , visualization , applied psychology , computer science , medicine , social group , nursing , health care , political science , data mining , botany , pathology , politics , world wide web , law , biology
This article describes a visualization experiment that tests hypotheses based on the social identity approach about effectiveness of communication strategies during mass decontamination. Specifically, the mediating role of social identity processes between effective responder communication and relevant outcome variables (e.g., public compliance), is examined. After visualizing that they had been involved in a hypothetical incident involving decontamination, participants ( N = 129) received one of three different communication strategies: (1) health‐focused information about decontamination, sufficient practical information; (2) no health‐focused information, sufficient practical information; and (3) no health‐focused information, low practical information. The communication strategy perceived as most effective included health‐focused information and practical information; this resulted in the highest levels of expected compliance, mediated by social identity variables. Implications for management of mass decontamination are discussed.