INFLUENCING THE ENVIRONMENTAL RISK ACTIONS OF OTHERS: INSIGHTS FROM THE SOCIAL SCIENCES THAT ARE AVAILABLE TO HELP MAKE ADVISORY VOICES BE MORE CONVINCING

Insights are presented from social science about communication of natural science to lay recipients that are most effective in reaching, teaching, and influencing the behavior of message recipients reacting to environmental risk messages from knowledgeable and trusted sources. These insights are based on a half-century of empirical social scientific investigations that are briefly characterized. The web site to access an annotated bibliography of all existing publications will be disseminated to assist in information transfer. The principles of successful communication identified by this research are the techniques that foster the best recipient understanding, belief, and motivation for action-taking that accomplish effective remedial actions. Following this, these classical principles are evaluated in the context of cutting-edge results from a recent "mega-study" designed to isolate the most powerful communication traits that successfully motivate recipients into action. There are two most powerful traits. The first is the "density of information" received including from trusted official or scientific organizations. Dense information includes the receipt of multiple reinforcing messages across different information sources, e.g., from individual scientists in a variety of science societies and from public safety officials that consistently recommend similar remedial actions; and the receipt of multiple reinforcing messages over different types of communication channels, e.g., the distribution of white papers and news articles about them that consistently recommend similar remdial actions. The second is "cues promoting action" by message recipients based on observations and what is heard as potential action-takers interact ot "mill" with each other and thereby encounter the actions others have taken or plan to take. Finally, I discuss how key principles can be used to most effectively foster productive environmental risk action among different audience types. Examples include supporting local champions and taking advantage of "windows of opportunity" with policy decision makers; and by communicating "actionable risk" in the case of the public which is telling people what to do about risk versus communicating about the risk without sugesting remedial actions.