Self-evacuation archetypes in Australian bushfire

Abstract

Australian householders respond to bushfire in diverse and complex ways according to their circumstances and characteristics. They tend not to simply make a binary decision to evacuate from or remain at their property, or simply to 'wait and see' what happens before they decide. Seven self-evacuation archetypes displaying universally recognisable, fundamentally human characteristics were identified through cluster and discriminant function analysis of data from 457 householders who had recently experienced a bushfire. These seven archetypes characterise the diverse attitudes and behaviour of typical groupings of householders faced with making a protective decision during a bushfire. The archetypes comprise those who deny a threat exists (Threat Denier), who do not believe that they are responsible for themselves (Responsibility Denier) or are unable to take responsibility for their safe evacuation (Dependent Evacuator). They include those who are determined to safely evacuate (Considered Evacuator), those who look to advice and guidance from their community (Community Guided) and those who make considerable efforts to remain but are concerned they lack the experience to do so successfully (Worried Waverers). Some, who are experienced with bushfire, selfreliant and well prepared are committed to remaining (Experienced Independents) but in unfavourable circumstances may evacuate. Bushfire safety policy and programs should not treat these householders as simply stereotypical 'evacuators' or 'remainers' but accommodate the diversity of these archetypes to effectively meet their educational and engagement needs.

Predicting self-evacuation in Australian bushfire

“…For the purposes of this research evacuating or remaining (short-run hazard adjustment) during a bushfire is a binary decision that may be predicted by a range of independent variables, incorporated in the PADM as described in Table 1. The motivations behind these protective decisions which are concealed by this analytical procedure are addressed elsewhere (Strahan, Whittaker, & Handmer, 2018).…”

“…By positing householders' protective behaviour as a choice between evacuating or remaining to enable analysis based on binary logistics regression, the differing motivations of evacuees and remainers are not discussed. A recent publication attempts to address this shortcoming (Strahan, et al, 2018) Responding to a potential bushfire threat requires householders to adjust their daily lives, something they are reluctant to do unless they think it is absolutely necessary (Dash and Gladwin, 2007). This research has established that householders' stasis, in continuing their daily routine, may be disturbed by three key factors that predict evacuation.…”

Island vulnerability and resilience to wildfires: A case study of Corsica

“…Nonetheless, less research is focused on understanding these populations' preparedness for and their lived experiences in responding to wildfire events, for example having to evacuate their homes. While current studies on human responses to wildfires are mostly focused on North American and Australian populations [4,5,6], studies particular to the context of European populations are rare, particularly so for the islands at-risk from wildfires [7,8].…”

Archetype-Based Modeling of Persona for Comprehensive Personality Computing from Personal Big Data

“…Collective unconscious embraced impersonal, universally shared, fundamental characteristics of humanity that he referred to as primordial images or archetypes [ 13 ]. Based on myths, legends and esoteric teachings, archetypes form part of the individual’s unconscious mind [ 14 ]. That is to say, a specific persona in a certain scenario would take on the aspect of one or more archetypes.…”