Communal Risk Information Sharing: Motivations Behind Voluntary Information Sharing for Reducing Interdependent Risks in a Community

This article extends our understanding of risk communication related to communal risk and risk information sharing. Building on research from risk communication, organizational behavior, and social psychology, it examines individual-, relation-, and community-level motivations to share information about a devastating plant disease. This disease can bring about substantial economic risk to everyone in a farming community. We tested our hypotheses using a national sample of U.S. tomato and potato growers (N = 452). Our findings show that growers were motivated to share information about a communal risk based on (a) individual-oriented concerns for economic costs, (b) relation-oriented concerns for reciprocation and the information recipient's trustworthiness, and (c) community-oriented concerns comprising a sense of shared responsibility and community cohesiveness.