The what and how of warning messages: An experimental examination of instructing information and linguistic features use

We conducted a between-subjects experiment (N = 1626) to examine the effects of instructing information, an important theoretical keystone in crisis communication research, in predicting two key outcomes in the literature—protective behavioral intentions and message retransmission intentions. Given the communicative context, high-impact weather warnings, we additionally considered the moderating role of linguistic features use in predicting these outcomes. Based upon theory and research in this area, we examined the mediating roles of self-efficacy and perceived instructing information in predicting protective behavioral intentions and message retransmission intentions, respectively. Results mainly support our hypotheses. The instructing information conditions predicted the proposed intervening variable, which in turn predicted both outcomes. Linguistic features use moderated the direct effect of instructing information in predicting protective behavioral intentions, but not message retransmission intentions. The discussion focuses on the implications of these findings for crisis communication theory and practice.