The Verification Pause

The purpose of this article is to investigate the verification pause—that moment when people assess how to respond to a disaster. The verification pause is potentially extended due to excess or insufficient information. Most evidence around the verification pause and its relation to new media is anecdotal. Using direct observations and interviews, this article presents a case study of the verification pause during an earthquake event. A classroom of 19 university students spent four minutes post-event behavior before evacuating. Through adaptive structuration theory (AST), the article contextualizes the students' response. Students used laptops and mobile devices to seek and share earthquake information with their extended social network. These online exchanges blended with the physical world as students shared what they learned with the classroom. The article concludes by suggesting that improved disaster response training and timely access to trustworthy information could shorten the verification pause and possibly save lives.