Trust and Patience after a Tornado

Abstract

This study examines how individuals’ trust levels and patience are affected by a tornado event. Affected and unaffected people were surveyed after a 2013 tornado in Moore, Oklahoma, that resulted in 24 fatalities. Findings suggest that those who self-identified as affected became more trusting in general as well as more trusting of police and fire authorities. Affected homeowners also exhibited less patience than their unaffected counterparts. The evaluation of differences in trust and patience enables us to learn about how underlying propensities to invest (or reinvest) in critical private and public infrastructure may be influenced by extreme events. Disasters alter trust levels and patience of affected residents, and documenting the direction and magnitude of these changes may help agencies involved in the recovery process.

The Effects of Natural Disasters on Social Trust: Evidence from South Korea

“…When it comes to the results for other explanatory variables, we first found the negative relationship between property values, for homeowners and social trust levels. Shupp, Loveridge, Skidmore, Lim and Rogers [30] argued that homeowners are more patient but disaster-affected homeowners are less patient. If a property is affected by a disaster and property values are high, then this property may have significant damage.…”

“…Cassar et al [29] showed that the victims of the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami became more trusting, risk-averse and impatient in the long term. Shupp et al [30] found that for people who were affected by a tornado, trust in general, trust in the police and fire authorities and trust in friends increased. In addition, they showed that affected homeowners became less patient regarding financial payments than unaffected homeowners.…”

“…Thus, in our study, we included the financial independence rate in the empirical models, calculated as the total of local taxes and non-tax revenues divided by the total budget for a local government. Third, Shupp, Loveridge, Skidmore, Lim and Rogers [30] argued that the impacts of disasters on social trust and patience differ based on homeownership. Their findings showed that (1) house owners are less trusting, although this is not statistically significant and (2) disaster-affected homeowners are less patient than unaffected ones.…”

The concept of trust in disasters: the Slovenian experience

“…Thoresen et al (2018) conducted a cross-sectoral study of institutional trust of victims of the disaster, and found out that "the levels of institutional trust in the police and judicial system were notably lower in survivors and the bereaved than in the general population". In contrast, Schupp et al (2017) examined how individuals' trust levels and patience were affected by a tornado event in 2013 in Moore, Oklahoma, USA. The findings suggest that those who self-identified as affected by the disaster became more trusting in general as well as more trusting of police and fire authorities.…”

“…Kervyn et al (2014) established that the level of trust positively influences the mobilisation of a population for disaster response. Some researchers reported that the level of trust in institutions after a disaster decreased (Liang, 2016;Thoresen et al, 2018), whereas Schupp et al (2017) claimed the opposite. As to social trust, its levels are higher if losses are not devastating (Akbar and Aldrich, 2017), if distribution of help is prompt and fair (Eadie and Su, 2018;Akbar and Aldrich, 2017;Kang and Skidmore, 2018), and if the affected people, neighbours and responders interact (Kang and Skidmore, 2018).…”