New research from the American Psychological Association has examined the effects of a missile strike alarm — which turned out to be false — on the anxiety levels of Twitter users.
On the morning of January 13, 2018, the residents of Hawaii received an emergency alert urging them to seek shelter.
They received a message stating that a missile strike was headed toward them.
The message quickly became viral; an employee of the Hawaii Emergency Management Agency (EMA) mistakenly sent the alarm over radio, television, smartphones, and other wireless devices, accompanied by the disclaimer “this is not a drill.”