Human Response to Disasters

Abstract

We first discuss psychological response and coping behavior in disaster situations. We confirm earlier findings that people have a tendency to interpret the signs of danger within their daily context and to underestimate the possibility of a disaster. It is suggested that the repetitive and consistent information would help to induce adaptive responses. The typical coping patterns found were: (1) information gathering behavior, (2) activities closely related to one's family, (3) preventive or protective behaviors, and (4) self protection by moving. We found the following six psychological determinants of coping behavior: (1) recognizing the seriousness of the situation, (2) knowing appropriate behavior for the situation faced, (3) expecting the projected coping response to be feasible, (4) perceiving the cost and reward of acting, (5) feeling of imminence of danger and, (6) the state of emotion of those involved. In the last part of the article we examine evacuation behavior in particular, based on our surveys in four communities in Japan. The central factors which determine evacuation decisions were: (1) direct perception of threat, (2) exposure to the evacuation advice, (3) factors relating to family, (4) community preparedness, and (5) ’ demographic charactersties. We distinguish three basic phases in the evacuation process, that is, the timing of evacuation, the choice of transportation, and the sheltering activity. Threat conditions, exposure to evacuation advice, and one's location were found to relate to the timing of evacuation. Most people evacuated by car. No consistent pattern was found in the choice of shelters.

Agent-based simulation of seismic crisis including human behavior: application to the city of Beirut, Lebanon

“…The leader is followed by the other group members in both the evacuation decision and the choice of mobility destination Hence, if the group is indoors during the earthquake, the group's decision to evacuate will be the same as the leader's. In the case where a group evacuates, all group members evacuate at the same time 55 , they wait for the group member who has the longest evacuation delay. Similarly, the individual target destinations of the group members are changed to the target destination of the group's leader.…”

Call-to-Action Statements in Tornado Warnings: Do They Reflect Recent Developments in Tornado-Safety Research?

“…Relatedly, people are more likely to respond to a warning message if it contains information about what to do to protect themselves (DiGiovanni et al, 2002;Mileti and Darlington, 1997). Warning messages are most effective when they are not only clear but also repeated (Drabek, 1969;Mikami and Ikeda, 1985; and consistent (Christiansen and Ruch, 1980;DiGiovanni et al, 2002;Nigg, 1987). For example, have shown that when the same information is received multiple times from multiple different sources, its impact on risk perception and on people's efforts to obtain further information is maximized (see also Pfister, 2002).…”