Expanding protection motivation theory: investigating an application to animal owners and emergency responders in bushfire emergencies

Abstract

BackgroundProtection Motivation Theory (PMT) was developed by Rogers in 1975, to describe how individuals are motivated to react in a self-protective way towards a perceived health threat. Rogers expected the use of PMT to diversify over time, which has proved true over four decades. The purpose of this paper is to explore how PMT can be used and expanded to inform and improve public safety strategies in natural hazards. As global climate change impacts on the Australian environment, natural hazards seem to be increasing in scale and frequency, and Emergency Services’ public education campaigns have necessarily escalated to keep pace with perceived public threat. Of concern, is that the awareness-preparedness gap in residents’ survival plans is narrowing disproportionately slowly compared to the magnitude of resources applied to rectify this trend. Practical applications of adaptable social theory could be used to help resolve this dilemma.DiscussionPMT has been used to describe human behaviour in individuals, families, and the parent-child unit. It has been applied to floods in Europe and wildfire and earthquake in the United States. This paper seeks to determine if an application of PMT can be useful for achieving other-directed human protection across a novel demographic spectrum in natural hazards, specifically, animal owners and emergency responders in bushfire emergencies.These groups could benefit from such an approach: owners to build and fortify their response- and self-efficacy, and to help translate knowledge into safer behaviour, and responders to gain a better understanding of a diverse demographic with animal ownership as its common denominator, and with whom they will be likely to engage in contemporary natural hazard management. Mutual collaboration between these groups could lead to a synergy of reciprocated response efficacy, and safer, less traumatic outcomes.SummaryEmergency services’ community education programs have made significant progress over the last decade, but public safety remains suboptimal while the magnitude of the awareness-preparedness gap persists. This paper examines an expanded, other-directed application of PMT to expand and enhance safer mitigation and response behaviour strategies for communities threatened by bushfire, which may ultimately help save human life.

Public health and natural hazards: new policies and preparedness initiatives developed from an Australian bushfire case study

“…The awareness‐preparedness gap is narrowing disproportionately slowly compared with the magnitude of public resources assigned to help people attain readiness 12,13,20–22 . Making safe, potentially life‐saving fire preparedness behaviours a routine element of daily life is one of a suite of lifestyle changes people need to adopt due to the escalating influence of climate change on natural hazards 23 .…”

“…Animals may be considered ‘dependent others’ and their welfare is frequently linked to human physical and psychological health 24–26 . For livestock farmers, an economic relationship does not exclude emotional attachment and both are considerations at the responder‐owner interface 20,24,27 …”

“…The presence of animals adds complexity to owners' preparedness and planning 20,27 . Incidents involving animals have been identified as a reason why people risk their own welfare and safety 28–31 .…”

“…Responding safely and appropriately to a fire emergency is a realistically attainable goal – though frequently thwarted by the magnitude of the awareness‐preparedness gap 20,27 . To overcome this requires fire‐fitness to be elevated to ‘business as usual’ status – as routine as buying groceries or fuelling a car.…”

Evaluating perceptions of risk in mosquito experts and identifying undocumented pathways for the introduction of invasive mosquito species into Europe

“…In other words, even if an expert perceives the introduction of an IMS as a threat, and believes that surveillance and control actions will effectively reduce the threat, perceived constraints may prevent that individual from supporting the implementation of actual actions against the IMS. As well as playing a role in health promotion and disease prevention, PMT has been successfully used to predict people's actions to prevent injury, share in environmental concerns, and to improve public safety (Floyd et al ., ; Westcott et al ., ). Protection motivation theory can be used to influence and predict various behaviours (Boer & Seydel, ) and, if appropriately used in the IMS context, could influence attitudes towards supporting the taking of action against the introduction of IMSs to prevent their establishment.…”