Investigation of the Effect of Social Media on Earthquake Awareness and Preparedness: A Structural Model Proposal

Abstract

The importance of preparedness for possible major earthquakes has revealed the need to explore readiness and efforts in order to lessen the impact of disasters. This research aims to investigate the important elements affecting the willingness to prepare for potential earthquake mitigation. The research model proposed in the study was designed by combining the Protection Motivation Theory with the Extended Planned Behavior Theory. Partial least squares structural equation modeling was used to fit the research model and test the hypotheses. In this study, a survey which has been conducted to investigate the intentions and behaviors of people to prepare for the mitigation of the possible effects of an expected earthquake was administered to 257 participants. According to the results of the study, social media significantly affected the earthquake's information awareness, perceived severity and perceived vulnerability. In addition, it was determined that as the earthquake attitude level increased, the behaviors towards reducing the effects of earthquakes also increased. Therefore, it is safe to say that the findings of the study can be used by authorities to enable them to carry out earthquake preparedness and mitigation practices.

Keywords: Earthquake, Residential earthquake preparedness, Earthquake mitigation, Protection Motivation Theory (PMT), Extended Planned Behavior Theory, Structural equation modeling, PLS-SEM