How are various natural disasters cognitively represented?: a psychometric study of natural disaster risk perception applying three-mode principal component analysis

Kenta Mitsushita (), Shin Murakoshi and Masato Koyama
Additional contact information
Kenta Mitsushita: Waseda University
Shin Murakoshi: Shizuoka University
Masato Koyama: Shizuoka University

Natural Hazards: Journal of the International Society for the Prevention and Mitigation of Natural Hazards, 2023, vol. 116, issue 1, No 41, 977-1000

Abstract: Abstract This study explores the features and structure of laypeople’s risk perceptions of natural disasters using a psychometric paradigm (PP) that employs three-mode principal component analysis (3MPCA) in Japan, a country with high vulnerability to various natural disasters. Laypeople (n = 825) and natural disaster experts (n = 22) living in Japan answered a questionnaire on judgments of 11 risk characteristics (e.g., extent of dread, personal controllability, scientific knowledge) and four risk perception items (subjective risk assessment, need for government measures, need for individual mitigation, and risk acceptance) regarding nine natural disasters. 3MPCA revealed a three-mode dimension structure that consists of three scale components (dread, controllability, and unknown), three target components (localized catastrophic, drastic, and gradual disasters) that are interpreted as cognitive disaster types and seven person components (each dimension of dread or controllability according to the target components and common dimension of unknown of all hazards). Furthermore, the cognitive disaster types varied between laypeople and experts. Multiple regression analysis revealed that dread determined risk perception items, except for risk acceptance, which was determined by controllability. Importantly, the effect of risk characteristics judgment varies according to the cognitive disaster type. This result indicates that the structure of natural disaster risk perceptions differs according to people’s recognition of hazard properties. Therefore, 3MPCA is a useful method for exploring such a structure to obtain a deeper understanding of the nature of hazards.

Keywords: Psychometric paradigm; Tucker3; Cognitive disaster type; Dread; Unknown; Controllability (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2023
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
http://link.springer.com/10.1007/s11069-022-05708-x Abstract (text/html)
Access to the full text of the articles in this series is restricted.

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:spr:nathaz:v:116:y:2023:i:1:d:10.1007_s11069-022-05708-x

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
http://www.springer.com/economics/journal/11069

DOI: 10.1007/s11069-022-05708-x

Access Statistics for this article

Natural Hazards: Journal of the International Society for the Prevention and Mitigation of Natural Hazards is currently edited by Thomas Glade, Tad S. Murty and Vladimír Schenk

More articles in Natural Hazards: Journal of the International Society for the Prevention and Mitigation of Natural Hazards from Springer, International Society for the Prevention and Mitigation of Natural Hazards
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Sonal Shukla () and Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing ().