I did a lot of business travel in the last 18 months and have witnessed the variety of TSA and airport security changes. Most of the improvements have actually, well, improved the security experience. However one thing that NEVER changes is the Threat Level. At airports it sits at ORANGE, one less than RED (SEVERE).
I cannot find a chart or trend or any historical log of the threat level bulletins. Only the daily update.
This ambigious scale and its unchanging nature defeats its intended behavior shaping power. This scale is no better than issuing alerts when there is an actual threat.
If the goal is to shape people to be more aware in general, this scale lost its use a long time ago. It’s like a banner ad that you no longer notice on a web page. Or, more specific to the airlines, it’s like the Safety Information cards NO ONE reads. (The Hurricane Saffir Simpson scale, when used for public awareness, also suffers from this same problem. Hurricane warnings extensively discussed here.)
The ambigous nature of the scale itself also confuses. What should one do if the threat is HIGH but not SEVERE? what’s the difference? Shouldn’t I be GUARDED even if the threat is LOW?
If you want people to strength behavior you need to vary the stimulus. Hell in this case, you don’t even have a set of behaviors you’re reinforcing…. just a “state of being” or something weird like that.
To make this more effective as an awareness shaping tool, the TSA and Homeland Security should create signs and messages that vary and are behavior specific.
“Take a look around you, is everything as you expect?”
“Last week’s reported incidents: X, Y, Z. Do you have something to report?”
“Pay attention. Reported incidents and diligent citizens reduce risk of incident by 50%!”
Perhaps these messages are a bit strong, hopefully you see my point. Marketing types call this a “call to action” and marketing folks know that you must vary the call to action to continue to heighten the response.
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