The seismic risk perception questionnaire

Abstract

Abstract The communication of natural hazards and their consequences is one of the more relevant ethical issues faced by scientists. In the last few years, social studies have provided evidence that risk communication is strongly influenced by the risk perception of the public. A theory that offers an integrative approach to understanding and explaining risk perception is still missing. To explain risk perception, it is necessary to consider several perspectives: social, psychological and cultural perspectives and their interactions. In our opinion, the semantic differential method is one of the most suitable methods to understand all these aspects. A questionnaire on the perception of seismic risk has been constructed using this method. The questionnaire consists of an informative part and seven sections, respectively, dedicated to the following: hazard, vulnerability (home and workplace), exposure, institutions and community, earthquake phenomena, risk information and their sources and a comparison between seismic risk and other natural hazards. The questionnaire allows one to obtain a perception score for each factor: hazard, exposure, vulnerability, institutions and community and earthquake phenomena. In January 2013, the first survey was conducted in Italy; preliminary data are discussed. Improving our knowledge about the perception of seismic risk would allow us to plan activities in advance for the mitigation of seismic risk and for more effective strategies for risk communication.