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Gender and Public Perception of Disasters: A Multiple Hazards Exploratory Study of EU Citizens
University of Cantabria, Spain.
University of Cantabria, Spain.
CyberEthics Lab, Italy.
RISE Research Institutes of Sweden, Safety and Transport, Fire and Safety.ORCID iD: 0000-0003-3019-0979
2022 (English)In: Safety, E-ISSN 2313-576X, Vol. 8, no 3, article id 59Article in journal (Refereed) Published
Abstract [en]

Aim: To explore gender influence on individual risk perception of multiple hazards and personal attitudes towards disaster preparedness across EU citizens. Method: An online survey was distributed to 2485 participants from Spain, France, Poland, Sweden and Italy. The survey was divided into two parts. The first part examined perceived likelihood (L), perceived personal impact (I) and perceived self-efficacy (E) towards disasters due to extreme weather conditions (flood, landslide and storm), fire, earthquake, hazardous materials accidents, and terrorist attacks. The overall risk rating for each specific hazard was measured through the following equation R = (L × I)/E and the resulting scores were brought into the range between 0 and 1. The second part explored people’s reactions to the Pros and Cons of preparedness to compute the overall attitudes of respondents towards preparation (expressed as a ratio between −1 and 1). Results: Although we found gender variations on concerns expressed as the likelihood of the occurrence, personal consequences and self-efficacy, the overall risks were judged significantly higher by females in all hazards (p < 0.01). We also found that, in general, most respondents (both males and females) were in favour of preparedness. More importantly, despite the gender differences in risk perception, there were no significant differences in the attitudes towards preparedness. We found weak correlations between risks perceived and attitudes towards preparedness (rho < 0.20). The intersectional analysis showed that young and adult females perceived higher risks than their gender counterparts at the same age. There were also gender differences in preparedness, i.e., females in higher age ranges are more motivated for preparedness than men in lower age ranges. We also found that risk perception for all hazards in females was significantly higher than in males at the same education level. We found no significant differences between sub-groups in the pros and cons of getting ready for disasters. However, females at a higher level of education have more positive attitudes towards preparedness. Conclusions: This study suggests that gender along with other intersecting factors (e.g., age and education) still shape differences in risk perception and attitudes towards disasters across the EU population. Overall, the presented results policy actions focus on promoting specific DRR policies and practices (bottom-up participatory and learning processes) through interventions oriented to specific target groups from a gender perspective. © 2022 by the authors.

Place, publisher, year, edition, pages
MDPI , 2022. Vol. 8, no 3, article id 59
Keywords [en]
gender, multiple hazards, preparedness, public perception, risk perception
National Category
Computer and Information Sciences
Identifiers
URN: urn:nbn:se:ri:diva-60261DOI: 10.3390/safety8030059Scopus ID: 2-s2.0-85138695581OAI: oai:DiVA.org:ri-60261DiVA, id: diva2:1702177
Note

Funding details: Horizon 2020 Framework Programme, H2020, 832576; Funding text 1: This project has received funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under grant agreement No 832576.

Available from: 2022-10-10 Created: 2022-10-10 Last updated: 2023-05-16Bibliographically approved

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Amon, Francine

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