response-efficacy = assessment of the effectiveness of possible actions
preparatory behavior is influenced by both a cognitive and an affective route.
At the social level, a direct effect for participation was found: the more residents participated in their
community the more they prepared. At the institutional level, the influence of empowerment on
preparedness was mediated by participation. Overall, the results point to the need to address both
cognition and affect in communicating risks and to make better use of social networks in facilitating
citizen preparedness for hazards
Citizens generally respond quite adaptively to crisis situations: they take reasonable decisions and
select the actions that are needed for the situation at hand. However, even though there is mostly no
panic or irresponsible behavior, the quality of the actions is clearly bound by knowledge and abilities.
The most predictive factor for precautionary actions is whether people have already experienced a
disaster
While it has received less attention than other variables, there is evidence to indicate that
precautionary behavior is also influenced by affect. Siegrist and Gutscher, for example, suggested
that the negative feelings related to previous experiences with flooding directly affects preparations.
Affect is a general concept and defined as ‘positive and negative evaluations of an object, behavior,
or idea with intensity and activity dimensions
affect reveals preferences: a positive affect signals a positive valuation of a situation or concept and
the other way around, a negative affect a negative valuation [17]. As such, affect can be used as a
heuristic: a particular feeling may act as a driver for performing a certain kind of action or not
anxiety (about a hazard) could both increase and decrease the likelihood that people would adopt
precautionary measures. An important influence on whether people prepared or not, was
determined by the mediating role of outcome expectancy (also known as response efficacy). If the
anxiety-preparedness relationship was mediated by a belief that it was possible to adopt (personal/
household) protective actions to mitigate the risk posed by a natural hazard, anxiety acted to
increase the likelihood of preparedness
people underestimate the likelihood of low-probability risks
preparatory behavior is influenced by both a cognitive and an affective route.
At the social level, a direct effect for participation was found: the more residents participated in their
community the more they prepared. At the institutional level, the influence of empowerment on
preparedness was mediated by participation. Overall, the results point to the need to address both
cognition and affect in communicating risks and to make better use of social networks in facilitating
citizen preparedness for hazards
Citizens generally respond quite adaptively to crisis situations: they take reasonable decisions and
select the actions that are needed for the situation at hand. However, even though there is mostly no
panic or irresponsible behavior, the quality of the actions is clearly bound by knowledge and abilities.
The most predictive factor for precautionary actions is whether people have already experienced a
disaster
While it has received less attention than other variables, there is evidence to indicate that
precautionary behavior is also influenced by affect. Siegrist and Gutscher, for example, suggested
that the negative feelings related to previous experiences with flooding directly affects preparations.
Affect is a general concept and defined as ‘positive and negative evaluations of an object, behavior,
or idea with intensity and activity dimensions
affect reveals preferences: a positive affect signals a positive valuation of a situation or concept and
the other way around, a negative affect a negative valuation [17]. As such, affect can be used as a
heuristic: a particular feeling may act as a driver for performing a certain kind of action or not
anxiety (about a hazard) could both increase and decrease the likelihood that people would adopt
precautionary measures. An important influence on whether people prepared or not, was
determined by the mediating role of outcome expectancy (also known as response efficacy). If the
anxiety-preparedness relationship was mediated by a belief that it was possible to adopt (personal/
household) protective actions to mitigate the risk posed by a natural hazard, anxiety acted to
increase the likelihood of preparedness
people underestimate the likelihood of low-probability risks
