Hamilton Bean, Professor and Chair of the Department of Communication, is featured in the inaugural issue of "NCA Amplified," a new research-translation publication from the National Communication Association.
The feature highlights a study Bean co-authored with Elizabeth J. Carlson, Chelsea Ratcliff, Manu Pokharel, and Joshua B. Barbour, published in the Journal of Applied Communication Research. Drawing on a survey of 481 U.S. residents, the research examines how people actually interpret and respond to Wireless Emergency Alerts (WEA) — the text-based warnings sent to cell phones during floods, tornadoes, and other imminent hazards.
The findings challenge an assumption in emergency management: that seeking more information ("milling") and following safety instructions are competing behaviors. Instead, the study shows people frequently do both; they pause to gather context while still intending to act on the alert. The research also found that prior hazard experience can shape response in counterintuitive ways, with those who had no direct experience with a hazard often being the most likely to comply immediately.
Based on these findings, Bean and his co-authors argue for moving emergency communication away from a top-down, "comply now" model and toward one built on shared accountability, including embedding links to more information directly in alert text and involving community members in message design before disaster strikes.