A scenario study on disaster preparedness behaviours

Abstract Europe has faced several crises over recent years, including the COVID-19 pandemic and the war in Ukraine. Additionally, the climate crisis has led to an increase in the occurrence of extreme weather events and natural disasters. Getting citizens on board when it comes to being prepared for the changing risk landscape in the EU is essential in building societal resilience. The importance of the population’s preparedness to deal with disasters has also been underlined by the Commission’s identification of the Union Disaster Resilience Goals (2023/C 56/01). One of these goals focuses on increasing risk awareness and the adoption of risk prevention and preparedness measures among the population. Research has shown that simply advising people of potential risks in their region is not necessarily sufficient to motivate them to prepare. Yet, preparation is key to an adequate responses in emergency situations and improving preparedness may thus be a powerful tool to support the population’s ability to respond in times of crisis. The EC JRC’s Competence Centre on Behavioural Insights will present a study conducted in five member states (N = ∼1000 per country), which investigates the effect of envisioning a disaster situation, and therefore explicitly eliciting personal affectedness, on individuals’ self-reported preparedness intentions and preparedness behaviours. The study uses multiple measures for intentions and preparedness behaviours, including click-through to external information and an incentivised preparedness game.