And deciding to act is by no means the same as acting. As advertisers have long known, what makes the difference between procrastination and action isn't information, but frequent reminders and easy implementation. In alerting people to risk, social comparison information is often as important as information about the risk itself. Since most people prefer to worry about the same risks as their friends, they are alert and responsive to evidence that a particular hazard is or is not a source of widespread local concern. Messages aimed at building the audience's sense of efficacy may also be effective in motivating action about a risk.
Emotions are also important.
Concern, worry, fear, and the like can be products of the cognitive dimensions of risk, but they also exert an independent influence. Even so, many risk communicators forgo appeals to emotion, sometimes out of principled respect for the audience, sometimes out of squeamishness, and sometimes out of a mistaken belief that emotional appeals inevitably backfire. Any appeal can backfire, but the data do not support the widely shared concern that too powerful an emotional appeal, especially a fear appeal, triggers denial and paralysis. In essence, people usually underestimate risks because they would rather believe they are safe, free to live their lives without the twin burdens of feeling vulnerable and feeling obliged to do something about it. A key can be found in the sorts of hazards whose risk we are most inclined to overestimate.