How regular people interpret mobile warning messages: re-organizing ‘knowing’

A focus on the expertise of public safety professionals and academic researchers has sometimes overlooked how the public – ‘regular people’ – may interpret mobile public warnings. Consequently, there are significant unknowns about how to improve warning messages and, more broadly, safety education. We analyzed U.S. residents’ (N = 481) open-ended responses to notional Wireless Emergency Alert (WEA) messages, specifically asking what they would do first and why. We developed codes and conducted a content analysis of the ‘what?’ and ‘why?’ responses, then tested for associations with knowledge-related audience characteristics. The results offered nuanced perspectives on both following and not following the warning’s safety advice. The results also suggest that lay knowledge may influence behavioral and attitudinal responses to WEA messages. We concluded that gaps in the organization of knowledge could be addressed by a public-safety-as-community-resilience approach. Accordingly, we offer practical recommendations for promoting community-level engagement and mutual understanding.