Accuracy and Defense Motives: Exploring Types of Information Insufficiency in the Risk Information Seeking and Processing (RISP) Model

Abstract

This study reconceptualizes information insufficiency as a goal-contingent construct within the Risk Information Seeking and Processing model. In multifaceted risk contexts, individuals confront health threats alongside challenges to deep-seated values and beliefs, producing different judgmental demands within a single risk event. Survey data from 858 Hong Kong adults show two distinct forms of information insufficiency, one oriented toward accurate safety judgments and another toward defending deep-seated values and beliefs. Each form is associated with distinct patterns of information seeking and processing. This study demonstrates how multiple goal-based information insufficiencies operate within the same individual in response to different judgmental demands.