Emerging Infectious Diseases (Apr 2017)
Discussion of Average versus Extreme Case Severity in Pandemic Risk Communications
Abstract
To investigate determinants of the public’s perceptions of disease threat, in 2015 we conducted a randomized survey experiment in the Netherlands. Adults who read a mock news article describing average +or extreme outcomes from a hypothetical influenza pandemic were more influenced by average than by extreme case information. Presenting both types of information simultaneously appeared counterproductive.
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