Psychology of Preparing for Large-scale Disasters

I came across an article discussing how people make decisions regarding large-scale disaster planning. I found it quite interesting as a survey of what research has found.

https://beta.theglobeandmail.com/life/wh...rticle36270627/

Interesting and worthwhile article. Why do some of spend areasonable (and in some cases, an unreasonable)amount of time and effort in preparing for such events. It is probably not because we are incredibly smart....

Good share.

Really interesting article!

I've had some success with converting friends to a preparedness mindset when I explain how some very modest steps would make a big difference in their comfort level if a power outage happens -- for whatever reason. Some have been convinced, usually in winter, when I retrieve chemical hand warmers or extra fleece and instantly improve their comfort.


"When warnings are too negative, "people actually feel helpless or feel it's something beyond their control," he says, whereas when people are told they can take specific steps to reduce their losses from a worst-case scenario to a less-terrible scenario, they're more inclined to feel empowered.

"In general, he says, when people feel like, "'yes, actually, we can actually do something to reduce the risk…' then they will react to this [information] positively."

Good article.

I can not tell you how much so many people NEED to HAVE IT HAPPEN TO THEM to get the message. There is SO much denial. I have seen people INSIST that they'll be ok.... Some of them are CO WORKERS! I'M A MEDIC!!! Emergency prep, response and mitigation are what WE DO! They still refuse to see.

Friends/neighbors that needed those heat packs...etc. They get it at least on the surface. The real 'fight' is convincing them to 'continue'.

We recently dealt with IRMA. We were prepared. Still...we did not foresee the flooding we had gotten. Yes we know about flooding and hurricanes..... this was INLAND. Highest points in the county. Why'd it flood? Combination of things. Biggest... human error. Local Gov't employee failed to open a drainage gate. Literally 38 inches of water in front of our house. We were restricted to the house itself and maybe a 20 x 20 area of 'grass' in the front and a narrow walkway around it for 4 days. Have we learned? OH YES! We now have contingencies just in case. We prepared as best we could and did decently. There was an obstacle we had not foreseen. Those things will pop up but overall we were good.

Still some neighbors STILL aren't 'seeing' it may happen again. "Oh that'll never happen again..." That's what we hear. Some people just refuse to see.

Sadly I’ve met people who have had it happen to them and changed exactly nothing about their preps after the fact.

I'm always amazed by the number of people that return generators for refunds after the storm....