Measuring outrage through a quantitative study of Iraqi immigrants in Michigan

• Published in: Cogent Social Sciences
• Main Authors: Kerry Chamberlain, C.J. Schumaker, Madiha Tariq
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: Taylor & Francis Group 2017-01-01
• Subjects: risk; communication; perception; hazard; iraqi; immigrant
• Online Access: http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/23311886.2016.1271271

Objectives: To measure the outrage towards five top hazards in Michigan of Iraqi immigrants from Sterling Heights and Dearborn, Michigan to enhance communication efforts. Methods: We recruited 84 Iraqi immigrants from two ACCESS community health and research facilities for this study. We utilized the Risk = Hazard + Outrage equation to measure outrage and total risk. Outrage was measured through a new survey instrument based off a list of nine outrage factors per hazard. We also used ANOVA to compare the hazards with each other and hazard and outrage levels. Results: Snowstorms were measured to be the highest outrage and power outages measured the lowest. Total risk was highest for snowstorms and lowest for pandemic influenza. Conclusions: The results measured outrage for each of the five Michigan hazards, showing what hazards Iraqi immigrants were most worried about. Because snowstorms were measured to have the highest outrage and overall measured risk, emergency preparedness and response professionals need to spend more time educating this group about snowstorms and learn from this group on resilience during power outages.