My slides from the opening plenary at SRA 2020.

1. 40 Years of Risk
Communication
Research?
John C. Besley, Michigan State University

2. We now know a lot about
‘how to affect’ and the ‘effect of’ …
The psychological processes that underlie
risk perceptions and decision-making

3. The evaluative beliefs that
underlie risk-related behaviors
Risk Beliefs
Benefit Beliefs
Normative Beliefs
Self-Efficacy Beliefs
Competence Beliefs
Benevolence Beliefs
Integrity Beliefs
Openness Beliefs
Identity Beliefs
Cause/Effect Beliefs
Behavior change
theories
Trust/Fairness
Theories
We now know a lot about
‘how to affect’ and the ‘effect of’ …

4. The importance of affect and discrete
emotions on risk-related behavior
We now know a something about
‘how to affect’ and the ‘effect of’ …

5. How we frame
risk-related issues
Rory, Half Full or Half Empty, via Flirkr creative commons
We now know a lot about
‘how to affect’ and the ‘effect of’ …

6. We now know a something about …
How to ethically use various communication
tactics to respectfully try to affect behaviors
Psychological
Processes
Evaluative
Beliefs
Feelings Frames
Communication Objectives/OutcomesCommunication
Tactics
Messages
Behaviors
Style/Tone
Channels
Messengers
Goal Behaviors
Individual Change
Support for Change
Acceptance of Change
(Or no change)
Communication Strategy
Implementation

7. What we don’t seem to know is …
How can we get the scientific community to be
more scientific when it comes to risk communication?
“Join … Dr. Anthony Fauci
and Alan Alda, in a discussion
of how to restore the faith of the
American people in science
and the scientific agencies—
what we must do now, and in
the months ahead, to rebuild
their trust in these essential
actors and institutions.”