Investigating the Impacts of Different Warning Modalities on Individual’s Risk Perception and Response Behaviors Through a Virtual Reality Experiment

With the impacts of global climate change, natural hazards are growing in number and intensity, affecting American communities. Over the past 3 years, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) has recorded 66 separate billion-dollar weather and climate hazards, resulting in 724 deaths and economic losses totaling $152.6 billion. Bhola et al. (2023) and O’Connor et al. (2021) also emphasized the substantial economic consequences brought by extreme weather events. Despite advancements in early warning systems, current natural hazard warning mechanisms remain inadequate, often failing to prompt necessary protective information since they are generalized and abstract (Brotzge & Donner, 2013; Golden & Adams, 2000; O’Connor et al., 2021). For the traditional natural hazard warning messages include text messages, television broadcasts, radio, and online/social media space (Casteel & Downing, 2013; Zhao et al., 2019). For the traditional natural hazard warning messages include text messages, television broadcasts, radio, and online/social media space (Casteel & Downing, 2013; Zhao et al., 2019), Households often cannot relate to the intensity and urgency that is needed to induce protective behavior.

This work developed a multimodality virtual reality (VR) system for natural hazard communication. By simulating realistic tornado hazard scenarios through VR, this study explores how various modalities of VR—specifically haptics, audio, and text affect individuals’ risk perceptions and their subsequent protective behaviors in natural hazard preparedness. This proposed research aims to address the following three questions: (1) How does supplementing natural hazard risk communication with VR affect individuals’ risk perception? (2) Does the modality employed, such as (haptics, text, and audio) create differing risk perception behavior? (3) What external factors could explain the differences across the modalities experienced? The research used a multimodality VR system developed in Unity3D, utilizing the HTC VIVE Pro Eye head-mounted display (HMD) with eye-tracking capabilities and haptic suits. This setup simulated an immersive tornado experience in a controlled laboratory setting. We conducted a human-subject experiment with 24 participants to receive warning messages in various formats and were instructed to seek shelter based on their judgment of the presented risks. Task performance was measured based on how long the participants stayed in the shelter for each trial, level of trust, expectation of a tornado event, and intention to shelter in subsequent trials. Risk perception and cognitive load data were collected by using well-established questionnaires such as NASA-TLX after each experimental trial.

Results indicated that the haptic warnings consistently led to heightened protective responses and sustained risk perceptions compared to audio and text warnings. The research findings found that haptic-enhanced warnings were more effective in prompting risk perception and protective actions compared to audio and static text messages, which suggests that the immersive and tactile elements of VR can potentially enhance the urgency and effectiveness of natural hazard risk communications.

The integration of VR into risk communication could improve individual and community r preparedness for natural hazards. This study contributes to the ongoing development of more effective and personalized early warning systems, potentially saving lives and reducing economic losses. Future research will focus on refining VR modalities and expanding the demographic inclusivity of the study to ensure broader applicability and effectiveness.