2019 Volume 17 Issue 1 Pages 1-8
This research examined the effects of providing information about a societal measure for massive earthquakes on individuals' perceived risks and preparative intentions of variety of disasters including earthquakes. The insurance effect and the single action bias predict that the providing information about an effective societal measure will decrease the feeling of worry of the respondents, and as the results, perceived risks and preparative intentions of them will also be decreased in general. On the other hand, the model called “out of sight, out of mind” predicts the provision will give the respondents the opportunity to recognize how the disaster risk they confront is high, and as the results, their perceived risks and preparative intentions will be increased. Using information about the enforcement of new earthquake resistance standards of buildings as the material, an experiment was conducted to compare the responses of participants who were provided with the information with those without the information. The results suggested that participants who read and understood information about the new earthquake resistance standards increased their perceived risks and preparative intentions regarding earthquakes. It was also found that the effects of the provision of information did not spread to responses of other kind of hazards and disasters. The findings of the experiment recommend the active announcement of societal measures for disasters from the viewpoint of the promotion of individuals' preparedness for disasters. Finally, the limitations of this study were discussed.
