Insights into Flood ‐Coping Appraisals of Protection Motivation Theory: Empirical Evidence from Germany and France

This study presents the results of two surveys among more than 1,600 flood‐prone households in Germany and France. Five hypotheses were tested using multivariate statistics regarding factors related to flood‐coping appraisals, which were derived from the PMT framework, related literature, and the literature on social vulnerability. We found that socioeconomic characteristics alone are not sufficient to explain flood‐coping appraisals. Particularly, observational learning from the social environment, such as friends and neighbors, is positively related to flood‐coping appraisals. This suggests that social norms and networks play an important role in flood‐preparedness decisions. Providing risk and coping information can also have a positive effect. Given the strong positive influence of the social environment on flood‐coping appraisals, future research should investigate how risk communication can be enhanced by making use of the observed social norms and network effects.

Source: Risk Analysis - November 17, 2017 Category: International Medicine & Public Health Authors: Philip Bubeck, W. J. Wouter Botzen, Jonas Laudan, Jeroen C.J.H. Aerts, Annegret H. Thieken Tags: Original Research Article Source Type: research