A Walk in the Park? Examining the Impact of App-Based Weather Warnings on Affective Reactions and the Search for Information in a Virtual City

Samuel Tomczyk, Maxi Rahn, Henriette Markwart and Silke Schmidt
Additional contact information
Samuel Tomczyk: Department Health and Prevention, Institute of Psychology, University of Greifswald, Robert-Blum-Straße 13, 17489 Greifswald, Germany
Maxi Rahn: Department Health and Prevention, Institute of Psychology, University of Greifswald, Robert-Blum-Straße 13, 17489 Greifswald, Germany
Henriette Markwart: Department Health and Prevention, Institute of Psychology, University of Greifswald, Robert-Blum-Straße 13, 17489 Greifswald, Germany
Silke Schmidt: Department Health and Prevention, Institute of Psychology, University of Greifswald, Robert-Blum-Straße 13, 17489 Greifswald, Germany

IJERPH, 2021, vol. 18, issue 16, 1-17

Abstract: Background : Warning apps can provide personalized public warnings, but research on their appraisal and impact on compliance is scarce. This study introduces a virtual city framework to examine affective reactions when receiving an app-based warning, and subsequent behavioral intentions. Methods: In an online experiment, 276 participants (M = 41.07, SD = 16.44, 62.0% female) were randomly allocated to one of eight groups (warning vs. no warning, thunderstorm vs. no thunderstorm, video vs. vignette). Participants were guided through a virtual city by a mock-up touristic app (t1). Then, the app issued a warning about an impending thunderstorm (t2), followed by a virtual thunderstorm (t3). The virtual city tour was presented via vignettes or videos. ANCOVAs were used to investigate trajectories of momentary anxiety, hierarchical regressions analyzed the impact of momentary anxiety on information seeking. Results : Participants who received a warning message and were confronted with a thunderstorm showed the highest increase in momentary anxiety, which predicted information seeking intentions. Conclusions : The findings underscore the importance of affective appraisal in processing warning messages. The virtual city framework is able to differentiate the impact of warning versus event in an online context, and thus promising for future warning research in virtual settings.

Keywords: emergency alert; public warning systems; affect heuristic; weather; disaster; online experiment (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I I1 I3 Q Q5 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2021
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/18/16/8353/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/18/16/8353/ (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jijerp:v:18:y:2021:i:16:p:8353-:d:609900

Access Statistics for this article

IJERPH is currently edited by Ms. Jenna Liu

More articles in IJERPH from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().