Despite advancements in health behavior theories, understanding the human motivation to engage in disaster preparedness remains elusive. Most attempts at engaging the public in protective behavior rely on risk communication that assumes an information deficit among the people; ergo, risk communicators operate under the assumption that by increasing awareness of risks, sufficient motivation can be generated for preparedness behavior. Yet, this is far from being true.

A growing body of literature indicates the prevalence of fear-directed preparedness behavior, which is suboptimal in motivating behavioral change. This should come as no surprise, as using fear appeal tactics in risk communication designed to promote health behaviors have been proven to be primarily a failure.

Arguably, the phenomenon of failed risk communication campaigns could be linked to unconscious concerns about death, as proposed in the context of the Terror-Management Theory (TMT). According to TMT, since the experience of death-related thoughts triggers the potential for anxiety, the human psyche responds with motivated avoidance. In other words, the mind utilizes mechanisms that prevent death from becoming salient and remove death-related thoughts from focal attention when they arise. In turn, these defense mechanisms may yield procrastination in adopting protective behavior generated by denial as an adaptive coping mechanism.

Preliminary data suggest that procrastination in preparedness behavior until the threat becomes actual and imminent might be explained by TMT; however, explicit evidence for this association is yet to be provided. Should this understanding of the phenomenon be substantiated, it could significantly contribute to expanding our knowledge of the theoretical model behind public preparedness behavior.

The presentation will discuss the state-of-the-art research currently being done by the author to support the above claims. It will provide preliminary findings and will call the community to reconsider the current paradigm of disaster risk reduction and risk communication.

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