Perceptions about Social Science among NWS Warning Coordination Meteorologists

Abstract

AbstractNOAA has recently placed greater emphasis on implementing social science findings into its products, but perceptions of social science research among National Weather Service offices have not been gauged. To this end, Warning Coordination Meteorologists (WCMs) were surveyed regarding the importance of social science research themes to their local offices. WCMs were also asked to rate their knowledge about several prominent topics and to state their opinions about potential problem issues, such as false alarms, hype, and message inconsistency. Sixty-one WCMs responded to the survey, representing each U.S. climate region. The respondents were favorable toward NOAA?s attention to social science, and nearly half have contacted or have been contacted by a social scientist. WCMs rated research themes that addressed how to communicate a message effectively and why individuals do not take action during a warning as being more important. They also rated their knowledge of why someone does not take action during a warning as being the lowest. WCMs expressed agreement that hype, inconsistency, and false alarms are ?key problems? for their areas, but rated false alarms the least problematic. They also expressed agreement that inconsistency and false alarms influence credibility, as well as the precautions people take during warnings. Finally, respondents described their own most pressing research questions. The importance of behavior and communication was repeated throughout the open-ended questions. Prominent themes included how to make the message more effective and how to get people to respond in an appropriate way upon receiving warning messages.