Frozen while I scan: Examining the impact of media dependencies, socioeconomic status and rumination on preparation behaviours related to Hurricane Dorian

Abstract

AbstractBuilding on previous crisis and risk literature, this study investigates media dependencies, information seeking, preparation behaviours and rumination tendencies among individuals living on the Atlantic seaboard who were impacted by Hurricane Dorian in 2019. Consistent with previous work, participants continue to perceive television, a legacy media, as the most important source of information—both initially and throughout the event. This study also analysed the extent to which information seeking, preparation behaviours and rumination tendencies may be related, drawing from recent work that has suggested that rumination tendencies may help explain sex differences in information seeking. Results suggested that those with higher rumination tendencies were more likely to perceive all sources of information as very important, with the exception of television, which was heavily relied upon by most participants. Rumination tendencies did not explain the variance in any of the three preparation behaviours examined. Overall, most participants had an emergency kit and an evacuation plan in place, while socioeconomic status positively predicted home preparation.