Research

I study how people and institutions understand, prepare for, and respond to risks and crises, and how they adapt to long-term change. Two questions organize much of the work.

Risk, preparedness, and response

How do people and organizations perceive and interpret risks, and what enables or constrains preparedness and protective response?

This work looks at why recognizing a disaster, climate, or health risk does not reliably lead to protective action, and at what changes that. It spans disaster risk, tornado warnings and false alarms, hurricane and flood preparedness, risk perception, trust, social norms, and health risk, including misinformation.

Why people adopt climate change adaptation and disaster risk reduction behaviorsAn integrated model of risk communication, with results from hurricanes, floods, and wildfires.
Are you prepared for the next storm? Social norms messages for disaster risk mitigationTesting how social norms messages motivate community members to prepare.
How mobile home residents understand and respond to tornado warningsWho acts on warnings, and what gets in the way.
Cry wolf effect? False alarms and public responses to tornado alertsHow repeated false alarms shape later responses.
Increasing perceived risk of opioid misuse: concrete language and imageHow message design changes health risk perception.
Behavioral science and COVID-19: an interactive solutions guide for policy designBringing behavioral evidence into public health policy under pressure.

Long-term change and institutional adaptation

How do institutions and policy systems anticipate long-term structural change, prepare for its consequences, and adapt over time?

This developing agenda focuses on institutional questions of financing, distribution, governance, labor markets, and design, rather than individual willpower. Population aging, pensions, and social protection are the present focus. Related earlier work examines skills and education-system change.

A world of transformation: moving from degrees to skills-based alternative credentialsHow education and credentialing systems adapt to changing skills.
The power of curriculum to transform education: incorporating 21st century skillsHow education systems build in new skills to prepare students.
Creating shared value and an aging population: a case study of Yuhan-KimberlyAn earlier study touching aging and institutional response.

Practice

From evidence to use

I generate, synthesize, and make evidence usable for policy, communication, services, and digital tools through policy analysis, research synthesis, comparative work, and user research.

See the projects

Publications

Grouped by primary topic. Browse across overlapping themes.

Browse by topic

Climate adaptation and disaster preparedness

Bridging research and practice for impact: Behavioral science in action for effective risk, crisis, and disaster communication

Lim, J. R., & Llopis, J. (2024). In B. F. Liu & A. M. Mehta. (Eds.), Routledge Handbook of Risk, Crisis, and Disaster Communication (pp. 364-382). Routledge.

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Are you prepared for the next storm? Developing social norms messages to motivate community members to perform disaster risk mitigation behaviors

Lim, J. R., Liu, B. F., & Atwell Seate, A. (2022). Risk Analysis.

Why people adopt climate change adaptation and disaster risk reduction behaviors: Integrated model of risk communication and results from hurricanes, floods, and wildfires

Lim, J. R. (2022). Bulletin of the American Meteorological Society.

Open Access PDF (AMS Version of Record)Open Access · AMS Version of Record

How mobile home residents understand and respond to tornado warnings

Liu, B. F., Egnoto, M., & Lim, J. R. (2019). Weather, Climate, and Society, 11(3), 521-534.

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Cry wolf effect? Evaluating the impact of false alarms on public responses to tornado alerts in the southeastern United States.

Lim, J. R., Liu, B. F., & Egnoto, M. (2019). Weather, Climate, and Society, 11(3), 549-563.

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Individuals’ religiosity and emotional coping in response to disasters.

Lim, J. R., Liu, B. F., Egnoto, M., & Roberts, H. A. (2019). Journal of Contingencies and Crisis Management, 27(4), 331-345.

How publics’ active and passive communicative behaviors affect their tornado responses: An integration of STOPS and SMCC.

Liu, B. F., Xu, S., Lim, J. R., & Egnoto, M. (2019). Public Relations Review, 45(4), 101831.

Health communication

The influence of stigmatizing messages on danger appraisal: Examining the model of stigma communication for opioid-related stigma, policy support, and related outcomes.

Ledford, V., Lim, J. R., Namkoong, K., Chen, J., & Qin, Y. (2021). Health Communication.

Increasing perceived risk of opioid misuse: The effects of concrete language and image

Qin, Y., Chen, J., Namkoong, K., Ledford, V., & Lim, J. R. (2020). Health Communication.

Find the Fake: Boosting resistance to health misinformation in Jordan with a WhatsApp chatbot game

Dugas, M., Pinzon Hernandez, D. A., Lim, J. R., Vakis, R., Afif, Z., Hasumi, T., & Elfadel, D. N. M. (2024). (Policy Research Working Paper No. 10933). World Bank.

COVID-19

Behavioral science and COVID-19: An interactive solutions guide for better policy design

Lim, J. R., Vakis, R., Cameron, C., & Dugas, M. (2022). World Bank.

Building trust and inclusivity: Navigating layered stigma and risk communication for LGBTQ+ individuals during COVID-19 outbreaks

Lim, J. R., Jun, H., & Ledford, V. (2025). Journal of Contingencies and Crisis Management.

Crisis communication and learning: The US higher education’s response to a global pandemic

Islam, K., Edwards, A. L., Shi, D., Lim, J. R., Sheppard, R., Liu, B. F., & Seeger, M. W. (2022). The Learning Organization.

When crises hit home: How U.S. higher education leaders navigate values during uncertain times

Liu, B. F., Shi, D., Lim, J. R., Islam, K., Edwards, A. L., & Seeger, M. (2021). Journal of Business Ethics.

Evolving best practices in crisis communication: Examining U.S. higher education’s responses to the COVID-19 pandemic

Liu, B. F., Lim, J. R., Shi, D., Edwards, A. L., Islam, K., Sheppard, R., & Seeger, M. (2021). Journal of International Risk and Crisis Communication. 4(3), 451-483.

Reducing COVID-19 vaccine hesitancy with social and behavior change communication strategies on social media

Dugas, M., Lim, J. R., Afif, Z., Chatila, M., Pinzon Hernandez, D. A., & Vakis, R. (2024). (Report No. 201042). World Bank Group.

Behaviorally informed interventions for COVID-19 vaccine take-up: Insights from Romania family doctors

Badiani-Magnusson, R., Lim, J. R., & Moscoe, E. E. (2022). (Report No. 176568). World Bank Group.

Using social media surveys and interventions to address vaccine hesitancy in Saudi Arabia

Lim, J. R., Moscoe, E., Alqunaibet, A., Pinzon Hernandez, D. A., Alruwaily, A., Chatila, M., Alfawaz, R., Zoratto, L., Afif, Z., Vakis, R., Al-Yasseri, B. J. H., Alsukait, R. F., Nguyen, S. N., Herbst, C. H., & Algwizani, A. (2024). Eastern Mediterranean Health Journal, 30(3), 182-195.

Behaviorally informed messages increase COVID-19 vaccination intentions: Insights from a global meta-analysis

Pinzon Hernandez, D. A., Lim, J. R., Dugas, M., Moscoe, E. E., Chatila, M., Cameron, C., Vakis, R., Afif, Z., & Orozco Olvera, V. H. (2024). (Policy Research Working Paper No. 10981). World Bank.

Behavioral policy and digital government

The behavioral dividend: Solving the 'last mile' problem in digital government

Gill, R. T. J., Afif, Z., Dugas, M., Ikindji, M., Lim, J. R., & Nasr, N. (2026). (Report No. 212331). World Bank Group.

Cross-cultural crisis communication

How organizations in different cultures respond to crises: Content analysis of crisis responses between the United States and South Korea.

Lim, J. R. (2020). International Journal of Strategic Communication.

Communication management and public relations

Creating shared value (CSV) and mutually beneficial relationships to address societal issues and develop corporate competitive advantage: A case study of Yuhan-Kimberly and an aging population.

Lim, J. R., & Lee, S. Y. (2022). Public Relations Review, 48(4).

Nonprofits’ public relations measurement and evaluation.

Lim, J. R. (2019). Institute for Public Relations.

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Education and 21st century skills

A world of transformation: Moving from degrees to skills-based alternative credentials

Mateo-Berganza Díaz, M. M., Lim, J. R., Cardenas Navia, I., & Elzey, K. (2022). Inter-American Development Bank

Un mundo en transformación: De las titulaciones tradicionales a las credenciales alternativas basadas en habilidades

Mateo-Berganza Díaz, M. M., Lim, J. R., Cardenas Navia, I., & Elzey, K. (2022). Banco Interamericano de Desarrollo.

Skills for life: Listening.

Wolvin, A., & Lim, J. R. (2022). Inter-American Development Bank.

El poder del currículo para transformar la educación: Cómo los sistemas educativos incorporan las habilidades del siglo XXI para preparar a los estudiantes ante los desafíos actuales

Mateo-Berganza Díaz, M. M., Lim, J. R., Pellicer Iborra, C., López, E., Rodríguez, H., López, R., Magro Mazo, C., Vásquez Guerra, A., Quesada Alvarado, A., Brooks-Young, S., Álvarez, X., Ramos, Y., Rivas, A., Barrenechea, I., Brazão, V., Ndebele, V., Nathan, D., & Groot, B. (2022). Banco Interamericano de Desarrollo.