Residents’ information seeking behavior and protective action for earthquake hazards in The Portland Oregon Metropolitan Area

Abstract

Though significant research exists on earthquake hazard adjustment adoption more generally, research focused on how information seeking influences planned or actual preparedness behavior is rare, limiting our understanding of how information seeking translates into preparedness. To address this gap, our study tests a proposed model of household seismic hazard adjustment using questionnaire responses of roughly 400 households living in the Portland, OR metropolitan region. The proposed model includes components of the Protective Action Decision Model (PADM) with specific emphasis on past information seeking behavior, preparedness behavior, intentions to seek information, and intentions to take protective action. Other components include risk perception, earthquake experience, affective response, seismic risk zone residency, and demographics. Consistent with previous research, this study finds information seeking behavior to be the strongest influence on preparedness with other important influences being risk perception, affective response, and intentions to prepare. We find weak ties between risk zone residency and earthquake risk perception, though this may be because our sample has little experience with earthquakes and the majority live in the same earthquake risk zones. Importantly, longitudinal studies are needed to determine whether information seeking and intentions to prepare eventually result in household protective action.

Risk communication in multistakeholder engagement: A novel spatial econometric model

“…Individual cognitive ability is related to individuals' gender, age, education level, income level, and personal experience (Chauvin & Chassang, 2021;Whelan et al, 2021), while the sociocultural environment is more abstract, as shown in differentiated studies of egalitarian and hierarchical worldviews and individualistic and collectivistic worldviews (Xue et al, 2014). Studies have distinguished the differences in risk perceptions of different interest groups; for example, some studies have pointed out that field experts assess risk more on the basis of objective data and focus on the probability and consequences of risks, while the general public assesses risk with both rational and emotional systems simultaneously at work (C. MacPherson-Krutsky et al, 2022). Other studies focus on risk perception deviation and regard it as significant in risk communication; for example, Bavel et al (2020) clarify the existence of risk perception deviation in terms of cognitive strategies and risk information acquisition channels.…”

Comparison between alarm-based and probability-based earthquake forecasting methods

“…The occurrence of earthquakes in regions, cities and densely populated areas poses enormous risks that can threaten national prosperity and social welfare (Jordan 2009 ). Quantifying urban earthquake risk is a complex problem that requires detailed knowledge of the environment, infrastructure and understanding of earthquake phenomena, as well as human behaviour in hazardous situations (MacPherson-Krutsky et al 2023 ). Empirical models based on earthquake clustering can provide methods for forecasting and predicting earthquakes that can be useful to the decision-makers to prepare seismic risk mitigation operations (Marzocchi & Lombardi 2009 ;Azarbakht et al 2021 ).…”