EFFECTIVENESS OF EVACUATION MESSAGES USING NUDGES

Abstract

While there is a demand for a society where people are aware of the need to protect their own lives, recent disasters have also raised the issue of delayed evacuation behavior and low awareness of evacuation. In this study, we focused on the intention to evacuate in the event of a disaster and aimed to understand the influence of messages on the intention to evacuate, to propose a plan to promote the intention to evacuate, and to verify the effectiveness of this plan. We tested four hypotheses about nudge messages by conducting a web-based questionnaire survey that simulates a specific evacuation situation. The results showed that nudge messages were more effective in promoting the intention to evacuate (Hypothesis 1) than ordinary messages (Hypothesis 2), and in the case of loss expressions, the effect of emphasized nudges (Hypothesis 3) was partially confirmed. On the other hand, this study did not confirm the effect of framing (Hypothesis 2) or the effect of describing the message specifically (Hypothesis 4).