Abstract
Although various factors related to the environment (perception of earthquake and warning) and knowledge (oral history and scientific knowledge) affect individual differences in evacuation behavior before a tsunami, the roles of psychological processes and personality factors in such relationships are poorly understood. We addressed this research gap by applying hierarchical regression analyses to survey data from survivors of the 2011 Tohoku earthquake and tsunami disaster. Previously-known contributions of environmental and knowledge factors were mostly replaced by the perception of a tsunami risk and threat, and these background factors were shown to facilitate these psychological processes. Several personality factors directly contributed to voluntary evacuation, particularly leadership and active well-being in the Power to Live scale, and extraversion in the Big Five scale. Overall, these results seem to indicate the need for formulating two independent targets when developing measures to enhance appropriate tsunami evacuation. Facilitation of the perception of a tsunami risk and threat may basically be pursued by developing existing approaches. Addressing the relevant personality factors may be done in a broader context of disaster or general education and sociocultural activities.
Highlights
A massive tsunami event is often preceded by an environmental cue, such as an earthquake, or by an official warning, which allows people to protect themselves by evacuating to high ground.the response varies across individuals [1,2,3,4,5,6]
Tohoku earthquake and tsunami disaster, which we address in this study, only
We previously explored survival-oriented personality factors (Power to Live scale) in a broad context related to the 2011 Tohoku earthquake and tsunami disaster and found that of the eight factors identified, emotion regulation, leadership, and problem solving were associated with immediate evacuation [23]
Summary
A massive tsunami event is often preceded by an environmental cue, such as an earthquake, or by an official warning, which allows people to protect themselves by evacuating to high ground. We analyzed the effects of various background factors on evacuation behavior and relevant psychological processes To this end, we analyzed the data from survivors of the 2011 Tohoku earthquake and tsunami disaster [23]. We first examined whether the perception of risk or threat of the tsunami, or the remembrance of a past experience of a tsunami or evacuation drill, explained immediate or spontaneous evacuation after controlling for other background factors If some of these psychological factors had significant effects, we examined whether they were associated with background factors. This entails a tradeoff between disaster preparedness and a mentally healthy, productive daily life We tested whether this dilemma is true by examining whether appropriate risk perception was predicted by personality traits negatively associated with the advantage of general optimistic bias; that is, a high degree of neuroticism [41] and a low degree of emotion regulation [42]. Tsunami memorials (memorial stones, shrines, and temples) are expected to help build awareness and help maintain memory of past events, as well as to ensure readiness for possible future events [10]
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