Abstract Tornadoes are responsible for considerable property damage and loss of life across the state of Oklahoma. While several studies have explored drivers of tornado adjustment behaviors, their results are not consistent in terms of their significance and direction. To address this shortcoming in the literature, we surveyed households using a disproportionate stratified sampling procedure from counties in Oklahoma that frequently experience tornado threats to explore drivers of adjustments. We used Structural Equation Modeling (SEM) to explore relationships among variables highlighted in the Protection Motivation Theory (PMT) and related literature that affect adjustment intentions and risk perceptions. Overall, we found the factors highlighted in the PMT are effective at explaining households’ intentions of adopting adjustment behaviors associated with tornado hazards. Threat appraisals, however, were less important than coping appraisals in explaining tornado hazard adjustment intentions. In further analysis, we grouped adjustments as 1) basic (e.g., flashlight, food and water supply) and 2) complex (e.g., insurance, storm shelter), and found that while coping appraisals are significant drivers of both adjustment categories, the effect of threat appraisals is only significant for complex adjustment intentions. We also found that emotional responses to hazards are major drivers of threat appraisals, stronger than perceived knowledge and hazard salience. Moreover, we found that demographic characteristics affect both adjustment intentions and threat appraisals. The additions to the PMT and categorization of adjustment activities improve our understanding of the PMT in different contexts. Such insights provide scholars and emergency managers with strategies for risk communication efforts.
more »
« less
This content will become publicly available on June 9, 2024
Applying the extended parallel process model to understand households’ responses to tornado and earthquake risks in Oklahoma
Oklahoma is a multihazard environment where both natural (e.g., tornadoes) and technological hazards (e.g., induced seismicity) are significant, making Oklahoma a unique setting to better understand how to manage and prepare for multiple hazards. While studies have attempted to understand drivers of hazard adjustments, few have focused on the overall number of adjustments undertaken instead of individual adjustments or adjustments in a multihazard environment. To address these gaps, we employ a survey sample of 866 households in Oklahoma to understand households’ danger control responses (protective hazard adjustments) for tornado and earthquake risks in Oklahoma. We apply the extended parallel processing model (EPPM) to categorize respondents according to their relative level of perceived threat and efficacy of protective actions in predicting the number of hazard adjustments they intend to or have adopted in response to tornadoes and induced earthquakes. In line with the EPPM, we found that households have the highest number of danger control responses when their perceived threat and efficacy are both high. Counter to the EPPM literature, we found low threat coupled with high efficacy moved some individuals toward the adoption of danger control responses in response to both tornadoes and earthquakes. When households have high efficacy, threat appraisals matter in tornado danger control responses but not in earthquake danger control responses. This EPPM categorization opens new research approaches for studies of natural and technological hazards. This study also provides information for local officials and emergency managers making mitigation and preparedness investments and policies.
more » « less- Award ID(s):
- 2038637
- NSF-PAR ID:
- 10421428
- Publisher / Repository:
- Wiley-Blackwell
- Date Published:
- Journal Name:
- Risk Analysis
- Volume:
- 44
- Issue:
- 2
- ISSN:
- 0272-4332
- Format(s):
- Medium: X Size: p. 408-424
- Size(s):
- ["p. 408-424"]
- Sponsoring Org:
- National Science Foundation
More Like this
-
-
Nasim Uddin Louise K. Comfort (Ed.)While existing literature has explored how hazard experience, salience, and demographics characteristics shape threat appraisal and hazard adjustment intentions, this study expands on past studies by exploring how additional factors such as qualitative characteristics of the hazard, political ideology, and oil entanglements shape threat appraisals, coping appraisals, and adjustment intentions in response to a techna hazard. This study builds on protection motivation theory (PMT) to explore factors that shape Oklahomans’ intentions to adjust to induced seismicity using data collected from households (n=866) across 27 counties in Oklahoma that have experienced varying levels of seismic activity resulting from oil and gas exploration. Correlational analyses and structural equation modeling show that several variables not included in the original PMT, such as feelings of dread or negative emotions associated with earthquakes, are important predictors of intentions to adopt hazard adjustments. This study concludes with examining the effect of additional factors on adjustment intentions and risk perceptions that can help guide future earthquake risk management in identifying and taking appropriate actions that will stimulate precautionary behavior of private actors.more » « less
-
What Matters? Exploring Drivers of Basic and Complex Adjustments to Tornadoes Among College Studentsnull (Ed.)Abstract Scholars have produced several theories and models to explain why individuals adjust to hazards. While findings from these studies are informative, studies have not considered how threat and coping appraisals may have differential effects on varying types of hazard adjustments, or how these findings may generalize to vulnerable populations. This study expands on the Protection Motivation Theory to explore the factors that shape hazard adjustment intentions among college students, a population traditionally defined as vulnerable, in response to tornado risk. An online survey was administered to college students (n=377) at Oklahoma State University, situated in a region that experiences considerable tornado risk. While the correlations between threat appraisal and tornado hazard adjustment intentions are smaller than the correlations between coping appraisal and tornado hazard adjustment intentions, findings suggest that threat appraisals become more important for influencing college students’ adjustment intentions when adjustment activities are complex (e.g., tornado shelter, home insurance), rather than basic (e.g., flashlight, first aid kid). This suggests that while both threat appraisals and coping appraisals are important for complex hazard adjustment intentions, basic hazard adjustment intentions are almost exclusively determined by coping appraisals. These findings have several practical implications for emergency management and provide new avenues for future hazard adjustment studies.more » « less
-
Since its founding in 2018, the Structural Extreme Events Reconnaissance (StEER) Network has worked to deepen the capacity of the Natural Hazards Engineering (NHE) community for coordinated and standardized assessments of the performance of the built environment following natural hazard events. This paper positions StEER within the field of engineering reconnaissance and the Natural Hazards Engineering Research Infrastructure (NHERI), outlining its organizational model for coordinated community-led responses to wind, seismic, and coastal hazard events. The paper’s examination of StEER’s event response workflow, engaging a range of hardware and delivering a suite of products, demonstrates StEER’s contributions in the areas of: workflow and data standardization, data reliability to enable field-observation-driven research & development, efficiency in data collection and dissemination to speed knowledge sharing, near-real- time open data access for enhanced coordination and transparency, and flexibility in collaboration modes to reduce the “overhead” associated with reconnaissance and foster broad NHE community engagement in event responses as part of field and virtual assessment structural teams (FAST/VAST). StEER’s creation of efficient systems to deliver well-documented, reliable data suitable for diverse re-uses as well as rapidly disseminated synopses of the impact of natural hazard events on the built environment provide a distinctive complement to existing post-event reconnaissance initiatives. The implementation of these policies, protocols and workflows is then demonstrated with case studies from five events illustrating StEER’s different field response strategies: the Nashville, Tennessee Tornadoes (2020) – a Hazard Gradient Survey; the Palu Earthquake and Tsunami in Indonesia (2018) – a Representative Performance Study; the Puerto Rico Earthquakes (2019/2020) – using Targeted Case Studies; Hurricane Laura (2020) – leveraging Rapid Surveys to enable virtual assessments; and Hurricane Dorian (2019) in the Bahamas – a Phased Multi-Hazard Investigation. The use of these strategies has enabled StEER to respond to 36 natural hazard events, involving over 150 different individuals to produce 45 published reports/briefings, over 5000 publicly available app-based structural assessments, and over 1600 km (1000 mi) of street-level panoramic imagery in its first 2years of operation.more » « less
-
more » « less
Abstract Understanding the motivation to adopt personal household adaptation behaviors in the face of climate change-related hazards is essential for developing and implementing behaviorally realistic interventions that promote well-being and health. Escalating extreme weather events increase the number of those directly exposed and adversely impacted by climate change. But do people attribute these negative events to climate change? Such subjective attribution may be a cognitive process whereby the experience of negative climate-change-related events may increase risk perceptions and motivate people to act. Here we surveyed a representative sample of 1846 residents of Florida and Texas, many of whom had been repeatedly exposed to hurricanes on the Gulf Coast, facing the 2020 Atlantic hurricane season. We assessed prior hurricane negative personal experiences, climate-change-related subjective attribution (for hurricanes), risk appraisal (perceived probability and severity of a hurricane threat), hurricane adaptation appraisal (perceived efficacy of adaptation measures and self-efficacy to address the threat of hurricanes), and self-reported hurricane personal household adaptation. Our findings suggest that prior hurricane negative personal experiences and subjective attribution are associated with greater hurricane risk appraisal. Hurricane subjective attribution moderated the relationship between hurricane negative personal experiences and risk appraisal; in turn, negative hurricane personal experiences, hurricane risk appraisal, and adaptation appraisal were positively associated with self-reported hurricane personal adaptation behaviors. Subjective attribution may be associated with elevated perceived risk for specific climate hazards. Communications that help people understand the link between their negative personal experiences (e.g. hurricanes) and climate change may help guide risk perceptions and motivate protective actions, particularly in areas with repeated exposure to threats.
