5.1.2. Procedures and Materials
The experiment used a single factorial between-groups design with independent (experimentally introduced perceived trust), dependent (risk perception), and mediating (system processing and heuristic processing) variables.
Participants were asked to read the low- or high-trust group materials.
The low-trust group read the following: Facts show that the government is never trustworthy in the face of disaster. In the past, Wuhan City promoted itself as being a “sponge,” and that it would be safe from torrential rain. However, in early July 2016, heavy rain hit Wuhan, causing serious waterlogging throughout the city, posing a great threat to people’s lives and property. It is understood that in the past few years of urban construction, Wuhan City did not build an underground drainage system. Rather, it took the urban face project as the first development priority. In such an era, what else can be used as a guarantee for the quality of life of the people?
The high-trust group read the following: Facts show that the government is always trustworthy in the face of disasters. In early July 2016, torrential rain hit Wuhan. During the disaster, leaders of various levels of government in Wuhan rushed to the front line of flood control and disaster relief day and night, fighting for more than 10 days. After the flood subsided, the Wuhan municipal government held several meetings to demonstrate the urban construction plan, re-drew extreme weather prevention plans, and formulated detailed responsibilities of various departments at all levels to resolutely minimize the flood threats faced by urban residents in the future.
Thereafter, to test the priming effect, we asked the participants how much they trust the government (the same as Study 1). Then, they competed the information processing method questionnaire, the risk perception questionnaire, and provided basic demographic information. The information processing method and risk perception questionnaires were the same as those in Study 2. In this study, the Cronbach’s alpha coefficients of the system processing dimension, heuristic processing dimension, and risk perception questionnaire were 0.78, 0.54, and 0.72, respectively. Finally, participants were informed of the real purpose of the experiment.