The Warn Room blogs apply 70 years of research to the practice of alerts and warnings. We show how evidence-based changes to message content, style, and structure can create more effective warnings.
For several years now, I've been pondering how to better name a hazard in a message that describes an active police incident. We know that not naming the hazard affects message understanding (a key outcome measured by scientists who study the effects of warning messages) and this relates directly to feelings of self-efficacy, that is, feeling like you can take the right action to protect yourself, leading to protective action. We studied this in response to a message for civ
Coded language does not simplify a message, it makes it more complex. When it comes to communicating danger, we need to know what the danger is, why its a danger, and what we can do about it.
