Personalized warnings – Swiss public’s preferences and needs

There are numerous efforts globally to enhance societies’ ability to prepare for and cope with disasters triggered by natural and human-made hazards such as heatwaves, flash floods, terrorist attacks, or earthquakes. Some of these efforts aim to enhance the effect of warnings by personalizing them. By addressing individual factors such as health issues and caregiving responsibilities and including tailored behavioral recommendations, they can become more inclusive. However, the compilation of these personalized warnings requires data, which can either be generated by a (one-time) query or extracted from individuals’ digital footprints. Thereby, the following key questions arise: Is there a desire for personalized warnings? Do these warnings improve safety culture, enhancing preparedness and responses in the face of disasters? Moreover, is the public aware of the type of data required to receive such warnings?

We will answer these questions by the means of a representative online survey in Switzerland with a between-subjects experiment by assigning participants to personalized heat warnings. It allows us to assess if people would like to receive personalized warnings and whether those warnings influence their intention to take protective measures and enhance inclusiveness. Further, we will analyze people’s data sharing preferences, their trust in warnings, and the influence of their online behavior (e.g., online-shopping, use of smart watches) on their preference for those warnings. Moreover, we will assess participants’ demographics to find patterns in what type of data different social groups are willing to share.

In our talk, we will present the first results of this survey and discuss implications for the further development of personalized warning messages.

This project has received funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under grant agreement No. 101021746