RAPID: Evaluating Ebola Message Effects over Time: Risk Perceptions, Trust in and Attributions of Responsibility to Institutions, Personal Behavior and Policy Support

This research aimed to test whether: (1) different messages about Ebola management, affect, trust, attributions of responsibility, beliefs and attitudes about Ebola and Ebola-related policy influenced risk perceptions and behavioral intentions; (2) such effect vary in response to emerging events withing a longitudinal study, and what factors make people more or less likely to change their views or behavior; (3) baseline trust and its sources affect temporal changes in beliefs, attitudes and behavioral intentions, as well as attributions of responsibility; (4) beliefs about relationships (direct, such as joint action, and indirect, such as shared values) between members of the Ebola management system affect these jpublic reactions, with or without interaction with the messages tested; and (5) message effects, if any decay at differing rates across message type.