Measuring Risk Tolerance across Domains: Scale Development and Validation

Effects of media portrayal on perceived cruise risk, image, and intentions

This research examines how news media portrayal of Covid-19 cases on cruise ships can produce decision biases. Two experiments were conducted in which news stories were varied according to format, base rate, framing and number size. The results demonstrate that prior cruise experience increases travel intentions and cruise image and lowers perceptions of cruise risk. Perceived risk is higher when the number of cases is presented in concrete numbers versus abstract percentages. Negative framing increases perceptions of cruise risk versus positive framing, especially when expressed in small numbers. The results extend beyond Covid-19 by demonstrating that sensationalism in the news media can result in decision biases that over- emphasize negative outcomes and increases risk perceptions in the minds of consumers. The findings suggest travel companies should work together with news media outlets when crisis situations arise to shift away from sensationalism and provide concrete information that is useful for consumers.

Understanding Australian Government Risk Communication Early in the COVID-19 Pandemic: Sociodemographics, Risk Attitudes and Media Consumption

Effective risk communication is essential for government and health authorities to effectively manage public health during the Coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic. Understanding the factors that influence people's perceptions of crisis-related risk messages is critical to identify gaps and inequalities in population risk communication. Using a longitudinal survey of a representative adult sample, we examined risk communication about COVID-19 during April-June 2020 in Australia across sociodemographic groups especially the at-risk groups, accounting for and exploring the effects of risk attitudes and media engagement. Our findings showed that individuals who were younger, more left-wing, more risk-tolerant, and had a current or a history of mental disorders perceived risk communication of the Australian Government to be lower quality. On the other hand, greater consumption of information from televisions was found to be associated with more positive attitudes toward government risk communication. Our results also revealed the importance of effective and high-quality risk communication in gaining the public endorsement of various public health directions. We discuss the implications of results in terms of the development of effective public communications that lead to health-protective behaviors and effectively scaffold public understanding of risk.

Patterns and predictors of alcohol use during the early stages of the COVID-19 pandemic in Australia: Longitudinal cohort study

Background

The COVID‐19 pandemic has resulted in disruptions across many life domains. The distress associated with the pandemic itself, and with public health efforts to manage the outbreak, could result in increased alcohol use. This study aimed to quantify changes in alcohol use during the early stages of the pandemic and factors associated with different patterns of use.

Methods

Data were obtained from a longitudinal survey of a representative Australian adult sample (N = 1296, 50% female, M_age = 46.0) conducted from March to June 2020, during the first wave of the COVID‐19 outbreak in Australia. Change in alcohol consumption was examined using Alcohol Use Disorders Identification Test‐Consumption (AUDIT‐C) scores from waves one, three, five, and seven of the study, each 4 weeks apart. Factors associated with alcohol consumption were examined, including depression (PHQ‐9) and anxiety (GAD‐7) symptoms, health risk tolerance, stress and coping, work and social impairment (WSAS), COVID impacts, and sociodemographic variables. We tested changes in alcohol use across the full sample using a mixed effects repeated measure ANOVA model and a multinomial logistic regression to identify factors assessed at wave 1 that were independently associated with alcohol use.

Results

There was no significant change in AUDIT‐C scores across the study. For most participants, alcohol use did not increase during the early phase of the COVID‐19 pandemic in Australia. COVID‐19 exposure, higher perceived coping, depression symptoms, and male gender were associated with greater odds of increasing or elevated levels of alcohol use. Social changes, which included working from home, had mixed effects on alcohol consumption.

Conclusions

Although no evidence was found for increased alcohol use overall during the early months of the pandemic, several factors were associated with alcohol consumption at risky levels. Greater understanding of motivations for drinking across public and private contexts, along with targeted support for high‐risk groups, could assist in reducing harm associated with alcohol consumption.

Cross-cultural assessment and comparisons of risk tolerance across domains

Risk attitudes are known to play an important role in influencing one’s behavior under conditions of uncertainty. To date, cultural influences on risk attitudes - beyond the effects they have on perceived risk - have not been well understood. Having a cross-culturally invariant measure of risk attitudes is a prerequisite for carrying out more in depth explorations in this area. The current study applied the domain-specific risk attitudes framework and focused on the Chinese and US cultural contexts. Using novel network analysis techniques, we explored domain-specific patterns of risk attitudes in Chinese and US community samples and we subsequently developed a version of the Multi-Domain Risk Tolerance scale (MDRT-EC) that had similar applicability in both samples. The MDRT-EC demonstrated excellent psychometric characteristics and achieved strong measurement invariance across both samples. The associations between MDRT-EC domain scales and criterion scales were also similar between the two samples, further indicating the measurement invariance of the MDRT-EC. Finally, we used the MDRT-EC to explore cultural differences in risk attitudes across domains and their predictive relations with a range of lifestyle behaviors.