Fig. 3: Communication model to engender instantaneous trust in emergencies.

This figure presents a communication model designed to foster instantaneous trust during emergencies. The model incorporates findings from our survey, which revealed that external factors—such as time of day, location, incident type, and severity—influence the necessary levels of communication. These include both verbal and nonverbal elements. Verbal instructions are critical for increasing situational awareness and providing context-specific information without overwhelming the individuals in distress. Key verbal elements promote credibility, consistency, reliability, and positivity, enhanced by specific language and visual aids like communicating outcomes, displaying rescuer names, roles, and seniority, and the use of badges or emblems. Nonverbal elements complement verbal communication, managing the relationship dynamics between the communicating parties, as evidenced by related studies.