This Rapid Response Research (RAPID) Grant will enable researchers to begin investigating whether life coping strategies change in the aftermath of a significant natural disaster such as the category five tornado in Moore, Oklahoma. On May 20, 2013 a category five tornado struck the Oklahoma City suburb of Moore. The tornado, more than a mile wide, resulted in massive damage and 24 fatalities. This research will investigate whether a natural disaster such as this alters a person's propensity to; 1) think and plan for the future or 2) accept more or less risk or 3) trust government and neighbors more or less. Knowledge about what happens to risk, time and trust preferences after a disaster is important since these preferences can directly affect individual and government post-disaster decisions about investing in rebuilding, recovery and future disaster preparation. We will use surveys that incorporate time and risk preference experiments as well as standardized trust questions to get data from individuals directly affected by this disaster as well as individuals outside the affected areas. Specifically, we will survey three populations; 1) individuals impacted directly (i.e., loss of life, injury or property damage) by the 2013 tornado event, 2) individuals from the surrounding community who experienced the event, but were not directly impacted, and 3) individuals residing in a similar (demographically) community in the Oklahoma City metro area, but which has not experienced a significant tornado event recently. Comparing the responses of these three different samples should allow us to identify any significant changes in individuals' views on risk, time or trust. In addition, there will be a second survey completed approximately 9 months later to see if any impacts on risk, time or trust preferences are short-term only or if they seem persistent.
This information is potentially very important in understanding and helping to guide both individuals' and governments' willingness to invest in private and public rebuilding and recovery efforts. For example, if a disaster causes victims to put less importance on the future and focus on the here and now right after disasters, it may be prudent to counsel victims to hold off making major reinvestment decisions in order to protect their long-run welfare. The research may also help understand which types of individuals are most susceptible to post-disaster life-skill shifts, so that such counseling can be targeted towards those most at risk. Finally, the findings from this grant can be integrated into a broader disaster research program designed to identify government-level changes in emergency preparedness and infrastructure investments that can reduce tornado fatalities.
On May 20, 2013 a category five tornado struck the suburbs of Oklahoma City. The tornado, more than a mile wide, resulted in massive damage and at least 24 fatalities. We use survey and experimental methods to study how preferences for time and risk as well as trust levels among affected citizens are impacted by tornado events. The evaluation enables us to learn about how underlying propensities to invest (or reinvest) in critical private and public infrastructure is influenced by significant extreme events. The surveys include measures of time (how individuals discount the future in favor of benefits now), risk and trust preferences. The results of this project are incorporated into and enhance a broader research program designed to inform infrastructure investment decisions and thus reduce vulnerability and improve post-tornado resiliency over time. The research outcomes reveal new and useful information regarding how disaster shocks alter perceptions/beliefs and thus may influence critical public and private investment decision-making in the wake of disasters. Specifically, our research shows that those impacted by disasters tend to be more trusting in general and more trusting of police and fire authorities in particular. However, in contrast to the general finding of increased trust, those who had their homes destroyed or damaged tend to exhibit lower trust of friends and family. Turning to risk preferences, our study indicates that those who lost a home were more ambiguity averse than those who were unaffected by the tornado. However, those impacted by the tornado were neither more risk averse nor loss averse, relative to those unaffected. Finally, our study suggests that affected homeowners, who are on average more patient than their non-homeowner counterparts, became less patient following the tornado. Together these finding suggest that those affected by the disaster may be more willing to increase spending for critical public and private infrastructure in the aftermath of the disaster because they tend to be more trusting of authorities, more ambiguity averse and less patient. In future research we plan to to identify the direct linkages between the altered preferences we observe in the wake of disaster shocks and actual private and public infrastructure investment decisions.
