Piloting behavioural interventions to improve public vigilance and reporting rates under SGSecure

Question:

Mr David Hoe: To ask the Senior Minister, Coordinating Minister for National Security and Minister for Home Affairs in light of the low vigilance and response rates observed in SGSecure social experiments, whether the Ministry will consider piloting behavioural interventions, including gamified, recognition-based or incentivebased approaches, to encourage prompt reporting and reinforce desired public responses

Answer:

Mr K Shanmugam, Senior Minister, Coordinating Minister for National Security and Minister for Home Affairs:

1. The SGSecure movement has incorporated behavioural interventions into engagement activities and programmes to improve engagement outcomes.

2. For example, the SGSecure movement leverages gamification activities to enable Singaporeans to put knowledge into practice in a simulated environment. Besides the interactive activities at SGSecure roadshows, there are other initiatives such as the SGSecure mini-games within the Singapore Police Force’s MATA-verse on Roblox, and inclusion of SGSecure elements (e.g. reporting of suspicious incidents) in the Ministry of Defence’s Total Defence@Singversegame on Roblox, and the Guardians of the City II card game. To nudge stronger personal commitment to keeping Singapore safe, SGSecure roadshow participants are also encouraged to make digital pledges on a community wall.

3. To recognise members of the public who have helped others in emergencies, the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) and the Singapore Civil Defence Force also give awards to the most active community responders, who have helped save lives and property. Positive stories involving community responders are also publicised, to encourage more to step up to play a role in this movement.

4. Lastly, the SGSecure movement also seeks to make vigilance a social norm through peer-led advocacy. For example, student leaders and volunteers are trained as SGSecure advocates to engage and educate their peers at safety and security events on campus. In May, MHA partnered Republic Polytechnic to organise a social media competition, where students created social media content to engage and educate their peers on SGSecure messages.

5. The SGSecure movement will continue to review and strengthen our outreach efforts to keep the terrorism threat salient to Singaporeans.