The role of emotions on people's behaviour in emergencies

Abstract

It is argued that positive emotions are likely to broaden people’s sense of options and to encourage them to consider various solutions while negative emotions are likely to narrow people’s focus and to restrict their sense of options (e.g., Fredrickson, 2001). However, little attention has been paid to the role of such emotions on people’s behaviour when they face an emergency situation.

In March 2011, Japan suffered triple disasters: the Great East Japan Earthquake, a massive tsunami and the Fukushima nuclear accident. The people who directly experienced the disasters needed to decide whether they should evacuate the area. This work-in-progress research will investigate factors, especially the role of emotions which determined their decisions. The research will measure the extent of the positive/negative emotions held by them after the Earthquake and will investigate how their emotions determined their sense of options and their behaviour.