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Risk Perceptions and Terror Management Theory: Assessing Public Responses to Urban Flooding in Toronto, Canada

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Abstract

Terror Management Theory (TMT) suggests that mortality salience (MS), or death reminders, should impact environmental behaviour and decision-making by increasing consumption and resource usage, shifting aesthetic preferences toward cultivated landscapes, and affecting adherence to environmental norms. We examined MS effects on residential flood risk perceptions in Toronto, Canada, following the major urban flood in July 2013. Survey responses were analyzed to assess risk perceptions across nine categories; analyses through the Wilcoxon-Mann–Whitney test show statistically insignificant differences between MS and control groups for all subcategories. Coupled with the TMT literature, the results indicate that existential anxiety is more likely to affect flood risk perceptions through worldview defense when the social dimension of flooding is made clear. Toronto residents’ societal beliefs about flooding play a major role in guiding flood management strategies. Our results provide scholarly and practical direction for flood risk communication strategies to promote the adoption of private flood-prevention measures, suggesting that anthropocentric framing of flooding issues will not induce negative environmental behaviour and may increase concern for flooding issues.

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Acknowledgements

Thank you to the reviewers who provided detailed and supportive comments on this manuscript. This work was supported by Canada’s Social Science and Humanities Research Council (SSHRC) through their Insight Development Grant.

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  1. University of Waterloo, Waterloo, ON, Canada

    Carolyn Mann & S. E. Wolfe

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  1. Carolyn Mann
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Correspondence to S. E. Wolfe.

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Appendices

Appendix A – Mortality Salience and Control Primes (news articles)

1.1 Mortality Salience Prime

Please read the following excerpt of an article from World News.

“TACLOBAN, Philippines – With the stench of death hanging over this storm-ravaged city, workers on Thursday began collecting the victims of Typhoon Haiyan for burial, in some cases in mass graves.

Most of the collected bodies have yet to be identified.

On the road to the airport, 51 corpses were loaded onto the back of a truck – a tiny handful of the 2,357 people confirmed to have been killed when the storm’s 195-mph-winds and wall of water slammed into the country. Aid workers say the true death toll could be much higher.

(…)

People here are relatively used to seeing bodies: Funeral ceremonies in this predominantly Catholic country are usually preceded by a family gathering around an open casket.

But the sight of victims lying uncollected along roadsides or in the wreckage of homes is adding to a widespread sense of despair.

“There are still so many cadavers in so many areas. It’s scary,” Tacloban Mayor Alfred Romualdez told AFP, adding that retrieval teams in the paralyzed city were struggling to cope.

The city government remains paralyzed, with an average of just 70 workers showing up for work, compared to 2,500 normally.

In the city’s first mass burial, scores of bodies in leaking black bags were lowered into hillside graves without any prayers being said, The Associated Press reported.

John Cajipe, 31, and three teenage boys who work at the local cemetery placed the first body in the grave’s right hand corner. Sweat rolled down their faces in the blistering sun as they carried the body.

The second body followed two minutes later, carefully placed alongside the first. And so on, until scores of bodies — all unidentified — filled the grave, the AP said.

Dozens more bodies were lined up in bags outside the City Hall.

Tacloban City Administrator Tecson John Lim told Reuters that a single mass grave for 1,000 victims was being dug Thursday.

It was a process being repeated across the storm-battered Philippines. South of the capital, Manila, locals in the town of Tanauan said one single mass grave contained 200 bodies.”

Source: Eppler, K. and Jamieson, A. (2013, November 14). Typhoon Haiyan: Hundreds of unidentified victims buried in mass graves. World News. Retrieved from http://worldnews.nbcnews.com/_news/2013/11/14/21453110-typhoon-haiyan-hundreds-of-unidentified-victims-buried-in-mass-graves

1.2 Control Prime

Please read the following excerpt of an article from The Western Producer.

“MCBRIDE, B.C. — Stalk upon stalk of wine grapes descend in rows in the mountain town of McBride.

Snow-capped peaks and wine grapes aren’t usually companions, but in the Mortensen family’s vision, people sip their glass from a patio and remark how McBride wine tastes like California wine did long ago.

At 53.3 degrees latitude, Kelly and Sharon Mortensen are set to become wine pioneers in Canada.

The family has led an elaborate experiment on their small B.C. farm over the last 10 years. Behind their house near the village of about 600 people is the beginning of this dream: two and a half acres of wine grapes, many still juvenile plants.

(…)

The Mortensens are among the entrepreneurial farmers anticipating the changes that will come with climate change. Climatologists predict that wine growing regions will shift significantly in the next 50 years. If they can produce wine, Kelly said theirs will be the northern-most winery using grapes in North America.

“The Okanagan may end up being too hot and dry,” Sharon said.

“Climate change is creeping up the world to the poles, and we’re finding the weather here is quite different from … when we bought our property.”

The month-to-month temperature differences between McBride and Kelowna in the Okanagan Valley are 3 to 5 °C, with similar extreme highs and lows. A winery near Salmon Arm, B.C., which is two to three degrees in latitude south of McBride, currently claims the title of “most northern (wine grape) vineyard in Canada.”

Greg Jones, a professor and research climatologist at Southern Oregon University who studies wine grape growing, said most people view climate change as a gradual temperature rise over time. It can be more variable than that, which can cause problems for wine grapes.

Climate change hasn’t yet put a damper on B.C wines. In fact, the number of B.C. wineries has tripled in the last 10 years, mostly in the Okanagan.”

Source: Keil, L. (2013, 14 November). Grapes grow in surprising, cold places. The Western Producer. Retrieved from: http://www.producer.com/2013/11/grapes-grow-in-surprising-cold-places/

Appendix B

Table 1 The PANAS
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Appendix C

Table 2 Survey questions by subcategory
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Appendix D

Table 3 Wilcoxon-Mann-Whitney test results by subcategory
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Appendix E

Table 4 Previous flood experience Wilcoxon-Mann-Whitney test results by subcategory
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Appendix F

Table 5 No previous flood experience Wilcoxon-Mann-Whitney test results by subcategory
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Mann, C., Wolfe, S.E. Risk Perceptions and Terror Management Theory: Assessing Public Responses to Urban Flooding in Toronto, Canada. Water Resour Manage 30, 2651–2670 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11269-016-1308-8

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