What Motivates People to Prepare, or Not Prepare, for Natural Disasters?

An article published May 11, 2011 in Knowledge@Wharton, an online resource from the University of Pennsylvania's Wharton Business School, looks at the question "what motivates individuals to listen to warnings and act" using the virtual world as a laboratory.  Robert Meyer, a Wharton marketing professor who is co-director of the Risk Management and Decision Processes Center, developed an "interactive simulation to study such factors as news media reports, storm warnings and the level of concern expressed by friends and neighbors" motivate people to act before an impending disaster.

Excerpts from the article include:  "The group that was bombarded with news about very bad storms actually prepared less in the simulation that followed than the other group. 'You have a crowding out effect with disasters,' according to Meyer. 'As you have one after another, people care less about the next one.'"  "...the group that viewed a graphic showing the most likely path of the hurricane along with a 'cone of uncertainty' prepared more -- not less -- than the group that was only shown the uncertainty cone…including a center-line forecast helped increase mean levels of preparation over the entire threatened region."

- Full article at: http://knowledge.wharton.upenn.edu/article.cfm?articleid=2772