Ask an expert: Why don’t people react to emergency warnings?

If you’ve ever received an emergency alert warning and didn’t act immediately, there may be a reason for that. CU Denver Department of Communication Chair and Professor Hamilton Bean, PhD, has spent his career researching national security and public alert and warning systems. He’s found that the process of “milling” is the reason people don’t always immediately act when they receive an emergency warning. The process describes the human need to search the social, physical, and, increasingly, the technological environment for additional, confirming information before they act, according to Bean.