Modeling Household Earthquake Hazard Adjustment Intentions: An Extension of the Protection Motivation Theory | Natural Hazards Review | Vol 24, No 2

AbstractWhile existing literature has explored how hazard experience, salience, and demographics characteristics shape threat appraisal and hazard adjustment intentions, this study expands on past studies by exploring how additional factors such as qualitative characteristics of the hazard, political ideology, and oil entanglements shape threat appraisals, coping appraisals, and adjustment intentions in response to a techna hazard. This study builds on protection motivation theory (PMT) to explore factors that shape Oklahomans’ intentions to adjust to induced seismicity using data collected from households (n=866) across 27 counties in Oklahoma that have experienced varying levels of seismic activity resulting from oil and gas exploration. Correlational analyses and structural equation modeling show that several variables not included in the original PMT, such as feelings of dread or negative emotions associated with earthquakes, are important predictors of intentions to adopt hazard adjustments. This study concludes with examining the effect of additional factors on adjustment intentions and risk perceptions that can help guide future earthquake risk management in identifying and taking appropriate actions that will stimulate precautionary behavior of private actors.Practical ApplicationsThis study builds on PMT to explore factors that shape Oklahomans’ intentions to adjust to induced seismicity using data collected from households (n=866) across 27 counties in Oklahoma that have experienced varying levels of seismic activity resulting from oil and gas exploration. While our results lend support to PMT hypotheses, we found that several variables not included in the original PMT, such as feelings of dread or negative emotions associated with earthquakes, are important predictors of intentions to adopt hazard adjustments. Results of this research can help guide future earthquake risk management in Oklahoma, providing insights that can be used to help residents identify and take appropriate actions to reduce their earthquake risk to reduce their risk. Local and state governments in Oklahoma should work to raise awareness of earthquake risk and use our research findings to emphasize adjustment measures that have low adoption intentions and high potential to reduce risk, and that are relatively cheap and easy to install (e.g., installing secure cabinets). Likewise, stakeholders across the state should work to eliminate financial barriers by providing subsidies or government loans for costly adjustment measures (e.g., purchasing earthquake insurance) that protect individuals and property from future earthquake hazards. Local emergency managers should also work to increase households’ familiarity and knowledge about earthquake risks and communicate the multiuse functions of many adjustment activities, which we find to be a strong predictor of adjustments.

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