Testing Public Perceptions for Flash Flood Impact-based WEAs

Wireless emergency alerts (WEAs) communicate life-saving information in short formats as push notifications on smartphones. With a restraint both on character count and in people’s attention during extreme weather, it becomes critical to test what messaging strategies have the greatest impact on readers’ perceptions and resultant behavioral intentions. This study experimentally tests differences in concern, protective action intention and confidence for a flash flood impact-based warning (IBW) WEAs. Differences in language between flash flood warnings, emergencies, and particularly dangerous labels are compared, as well as differences in specificity surrounding the flooding threat. Data comes from the 2024 Flooding and Society Survey, which was designed and administered by the Institute for Public Policy Research and Analysis (IPPRA) at the University of Oklahoma and the Nurture Nature Center via an online panel reflecting the U.S. population. Initial results and demographic trends will be presented, as well as a discussion around applications in future work.