The Problem of Tolerable Risks and Resistance to Change: A Conceptual Model for Overcoming Hidden Barriers for Strategic Risk Communication

Purpose: The purpose of this study is to propose a new conceptual model identifying hidden barriers prohibiting publics from changing risky behavior, thus affecting risk communication efforts negatively. This new strategic communication model that unearths hidden psychological processes (i.e., risk tolerance and message fatigue) aims to better explain individuals’ reactance to recommended behavioral change in both personal health and safety settings: why people refuse or resist taking preventative behaviors to protect themselves despite the fact they are aware of the risk severity and the benefit of taking recommended actions. Individuals’ decision on whether to tolerate a risk can determine whether, and to what degree, risk preventive actions are either enabled or prohibited at individual level. Design/methodology/approach: This study is a conceptual paper grounded in multidisciplinary research in the fields of risk and crisis communication, health communication and social psychology. Findings: While risk tolerance explains why people tolerate health risks by not modifying risky behaviors despite their sufficient risk severity perception, risk message fatigue explicates how risk information overload, emotional exhaustion, and media environment clutter contribute to people’s resistance to change their risky behaviors. The conceptual model posits that risk tolerance and risk message fatigue individually and jointly contribute to 1) the increase in individuals’ unrealistic sense of optimism and risk underestimation; and 2) the decrease in further risk information seeking and sharing activities and their intention to change risky behavior. Originality/value: This paper provides a theoretical framework to further investigate: 1) why sometimes strategic communication fails to persuade people to change unhealthy or risky behaviors; 2) why sometimes publics resist taking preventative or protective behaviors even though they might be sufficiently aware of the consequences of their decisions; and 3) how publics’ decision on whether to tolerate a risk (or not) might influence strategic health risk communication effectiveness and persuasion outcomes.