Yes, we can: motivate Dutch citizens to engage in self-protective behavior with regard to flood risks

Abstract

Although the risk of flooding poses a serious threat to the Dutch public, citizens are not very inclined to engage in self-protective behaviors. Current risk communication tries to enhance these self-protective behaviors among citizens, but is nonetheless not very successful. The level of citizens engaging in self-protective actions remains rather low. Therefore, this research strives to determine the factors that might enhance or lessen the intention to engage in self-protection among citizens. The study was a 2 (flood risk: high vs low) 9 2 (efficacy beliefs: high vs low) between subject experiment. It was conducted to test how varying levels of flood risk and efficacy beliefs influence two different selfprotective behaviors, namely information seeking and the intention to engage in risk mitigating or preventive behaviors. Furthermore, the relationship between information seeking and the intention to take self-protective actions was discussed. Results showed that high levels of flood risk lead to higher levels of both information seeking and the intention to engage in self-protective behaviors than low levels of flood risk. For efficacy beliefs, the same trend occurred. Also, results showed that information seeking seems to coincide with the intention to take preventive actions and acted as a mediator between the levels of perceived risk and efficacy and the intention to take self-protective actions.

Citizens’ adaptive or avoiding behavioral response to an emergency message on their mobile phone

“…And recently, the same is true for EPPM (e.g. Kievik and Gutteling 2011;Kievik, ter Huurne, and Gutteling 2012). PADM finds its roots in PMT but is specifically designed for application with disasters and major incidents (Terpstra and Lindell 2012;De Boer, Botzen, and Terpstra 2014).…”

“…Items were relaxed, anxious, concerned, reassured, and angry. Similar questions were used by Kievik and Gutteling (2011) and Kievik, ter Huurne, and Gutteling (2012).…”

Should We Leave? Attitudes towards Relocation in Response to Sea Level Rise

“…For example, the model can interpret how a diabetes patient perceives long-term risks associated with unhealthy eating behaviors and whether such cognitive assessment may influence his/her diet habits accordingly. It was later justified by the scholars in behavioral studies concerning earthquake [22], wildfire [23], flooding [24], and other natural hazards [25], but the applications on slow-onset disasters are rare.…”

Psychological determinants of financial buffer saving: the influence of financial risk tolerance and regulatory focus

“…This shift, inspired by both ideological and monetary reasons (Veldheer et al 2012), is visible in areas ranging from flood management (Kievik and Gutteling 2011) to crime prevention (van Steden, van Caem, and Boutellier 2011). While people are capable of taking protective measures (see Martin, Bender, and Raish 2007), and such investments can reduce damage by calamities considerably (Kreibich et al 2005), an essential prerequisite remains an individual's financial resources.…”