In the Great Lakes region, harmful algal blooms (HABs) also known as cyanobacterial blooms (blue-green algae) have become well-known due to severe public health risks, environmental, and socio-economic effects. Environmental and public health information related to risks from HABs are mainly communicated through state and local government health agencies, the efficacy of those approaches is unknown. The purpose of this study is to learn how to effectively communicate risks caused by HABs and understand the public's perception of risk from HABs when engaging in recreational activities in several lakes in Michigan. Drawing upon the Social Amplification of Risk Framework (SARF) and Theory of Planned Behavior (TPB) the study design developed two phases: (1) needs assessment in 2021 and (2) experimental message testing and evaluation in 2022. The first phase consists of conducting a fieldwork and 27 interviews with selected individuals from vulnerable populations to explore existing health-advisory messages about HABs near recreational areas, communication preferences, knowledge, and lake experiences with HABs in several communities. Throughout the first phase a gap between existing information provided by government entities about HABs, and individuals awareness of HABs and its effects was found. The second phase experimentally tested two communication frames (cognitive vs. emotional framing). Using TBT as our main framework, among the different behavioral beliefs measured to understand how they influence risk perception; attitude was shown to be significant. Based on our findings, emotional framing was able to achieve a higher level of risk perception than cognitive framing, demonstrating a need to effectively communicate risk using different framing approaches. This study contributes to the policy and practice of how to effectively communicate human health risks from freshwater HABs in the Great Lakes region.
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