The purpose of this study was to measure response and reaction time (RT) to call 911 for five weather emergencies in order to determine whether participants considered them “serious” enough to call for help. Past research has shown that people fail to take emergency warnings seriously, possibly due to past experience and poor risk assessment. Participants were asked if they would call 911 if they witnessed weather emergencies. Response and RT were recorded. Results showed that participants did not agree on whether to call 911, showing a 50-50 split on most decisions. Participants were fast to indicate they would call 911 for tornadoes and hurricanes. No sex differences in RTs were found, but there was some variation within each sex. Fast RTs were predicted by news exposure, suggesting that recent experience is influential on one’s mental model, processing speed, and decision-making. Future research should use professionals and emergency personnel as a comparison group to this sample of young adults and further examine reasons why people decide to call 911.
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