The impact of different natures of experience on risk perception regarding fire-related incidents: A comparison of firefighters and emergency survivors using cross-national data

Abstract

The main purpose of this work consisted in comparing the risk perception of emergency survivors and firefighters regarding fires in domestic and public settings, since specific research on the perception of fire risks is scarce. The sample, recruited in the context of the BeSeCu study, comprised a total of 3446 subjects (survivors: n=747; firefighters: n=2699) from seven European countries: Germany, Italy, Poland, Sweden, Spain, the Czech Republic, and Turkey. Using the standardized self-report instruments BeSeCu-S (survivors) and BeSeCu-FR (firefighters), probability estimates regarding two fire-related emergency situations were gathered. The results showed that in both the survivor and firefighter sample, the estimates differed with respect to the type of fire situation: The probability of becoming a victim of a fire in a domestic setting was consistently estimated as higher than becoming a victim of a fire in a public setting, which is consistent with the ranking order of the objective risks. Furthermore, the firefighters’ probability estimates concerning the two emergency situations were generally more accurate than the survivors’ assessments, within the total sample and the country subsamples. This is mostly in accordance with research findings being in favor of the higher accuracy of expert judgments. The results of this study provide new insights concerning the risk perception of laypeople and experts, and the way different natures of experience influence the accuracy with which risks are perceived.