Risk perception and involvement : to what extent do these factors influence information seeking behaviour?

This experiment aimed for investigating what factors influence information seeking behaviour. Especially, risk perception and involvement were investigated. Four newspaper articles were established giving information about a fire that had happened either at Twente University in Enschede or at Colombia University in New York. The articles differed in the amount of arguments they gave about possible health threats of the fire and the levels of involvement respondents experienced. The articles containing many arguments created high levels of risk perception, whereas the articles containing only few arguments created low levels of risk perception. Also, the articles that were situated at the Twente University, created high levels of involvement, whereas the articles that were situated in New York, created low levels of involvement.