Risk Information Seeking and Processing Model

The risk information seeking and processing (RISP) model, proposed by Robert Griffin and colleagues, seeks to explain how and when people are likely to seek information about various risks. The model is based on the idea that people's engagement with risk information is determined by many factors, including characteristics of the hazard, beliefs about the channel where the information is available, their own skills in gathering the information, their past experience, and the extent to which they feel knowledgeable about the risk. RISP was originally developed to examine environmental risk information seeking, but has since been expanded to other topics, including clinical trial enrollment, influenza vaccine uptake, and engagement in health-protective behaviors by low-income populations.

Figure 1 depicts the main elements of the RISP model. The outcome of the RISP model is a combination of an individual's seeking and processing of information. Information seeking is defined as the use of multiple channels to gather information to achieve a personal goal such as to problem solve or reduce anxiety. In the model, information seeking is thought of in two ways: routine (i.e., using habitual information sources) and nonroutine (i.e., actively seeking information from new channels). For example, people may gather new risk information from a television news program that they watch habitually (which would be called routine), or they may purposefully search the Internet for more information about a risk (called nonroutine).

Figure 1 Risk information seeking and processing model

Based on the heuristic-systematic model, information processing is conceptualized in terms of how extensively people engage with the risk information; this is bounded at one end by “heuristic” processing (referring to a superficial, limited engagement) and, at the other end, by “systematic” processing (a more thoughtful and effortful engagement). For example, an individual may read a newspaper article about the risk of death from cancer due to alcohol, but spend little time actually thinking about the risk; this illustrates [Page 1186]heuristic processing. Another person may read the same article but think more deeply about the risk, and even compare it to other viewpoints; this illustrates systematic processing. Risk information seeking and processing are combined into one outcome with four categories: routine heuristic, nonroutine heuristic, routine systematic, and nonroutine systematic behavior.

Information seeking and processing is the product of an individual's: (1) perceived discrepancy between current knowledge and needed information about a risk (information sufficiency); (2) beliefs about the channels of risk information (relevant channel beliefs); and (3) perceived ability to seek and process information to achieve the desired goal (perceived information gathering capacity). When people perceive that their knowledge does not meet the “sufficiency threshold” (the amount of information that individuals think is necessary to know), they engage in more effortful information seeking and processing behaviors. However, the relationship between information sufficiency and information seeking and processing behaviors is affected by the relevant channel beliefs and perceived information gathering capacity.

Relevant channel beliefs are perceptions about various channels of risk communication, such as the channel's trustworthiness or usefulness. For example, the same information about the benefits of a drug tends to be thought about differently if it is coming from a physician, as compared to from a pharmaceutical representative.

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