Influence of Social Norms on Decision-Making Against Landslide Risks in Interactive Simulation Tools

Abstract

Landslide disasters, i.e., movement of hill mass, cause significant damages to life and property. People may be educated about landslides via simulation tools, which provide simulated experiences of cause-and-effect relationships. The primary objective of this research was to test the influence of social norms on people’s decisions against landslides in an interactive landslide simulator (ILS) tool. In a lab-based experiment involving ILS, social norms were varied across two between-subject conditions: social (N = 25 participants) and non-social (N = 25 participants). In social condition, participants were provided feedback about investments made by a friend against landslides in addition to their investments. In non-social condition, participants were not provided feedback about friend’s investments, and they were only provided feedback about their investments. People’s investments were significantly higher in the social condition compared to the non-social condition. We discuss the benefits of using the ILS tool for educating people about landslide risks.