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The influence of cultural worldviews on people’s responses to hurricane risks and threat information

Abstract This article explores whether and how cultural worldviews influence people’s responses to approaching natural hazard threats, using data from a survey that asked residents of coastal Florida, USA, about a scenario of a hurricane forecasted to affect their region. The analysis finds that stronger individualist worldview is associated with lower hurricane-related evacuation intentions, cognitive risk perception, negative affect, response and self-efficacy, perceptions of government preparedness, and information seeking. It is also associated with greater hurricane information avoidance, perceptions of bias in key hurricane information sources, and negative reactance to hurricane threat information. Mediation analysis indicates that stronger individualists’ lower evacuation intentions are explained by their lower cognitive risk perception, negative affect, and response efficacy related to the hurricane threat. Their greater negative reactance to the hurricane threat information is partly explained by their lower cognitive risk perception, but not by their lower efficacy; both are counter to the predictions of the Extended Parallel Process Model. These results demonstrate that worldviews can interact with how people perceive and respond to near-term hazard risks and risk information, and they suggest that hazard risk communication should consider cultural theory when designing and conveying forecasts, warnings, and other risk messages. The authors recommend further research to investigate in greater depth the roles of cultural theory in these contexts.