Abstract
This paper addresses the question of whether or not the perception of earthquake effects is gender dependent. The case considered is the south Iceland earthquakes of June 2000. This includes two moderate-sized, shallow, strike-slip earthquakes with high peak ground acceleration in the epicentral area. After the earthquakes, a survey on earthquake intensities was carried out by the Earthquake Engineering Research Centre of the University of Iceland. The survey also included questions addressing safety issues and demographic information. The data dealt with herein cover 249 respondents in the epicentral area. In the analysis presented herein, emphasis is placed on the following questions: Did you manage to seek shelter inside a house during the earthquake? Did you manage to keep your balance? How long did it take you to recover? The main finding is that the data indicate a tendency towards gender-dependent perception of earthquake effects, which in some cases appears to be statistically significant. In particular, the time taken to recover seems to be very different between male and female respondents. The results also indicate that female respondents are biased towards higher estimation of felt earthquake intensity, while the opposite is true for male respondents.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
References
Ákason JB, Ólafsson S, Sigbjörnsson R (2006a) Phases of earthquake experience: a case study of the June 2000 South Iceland earthquakes. Risk Anal 26(5):1235–1246
Ákason JB, Ólafsson S, Sigbjörnsson R (2006b) Perception and observation of residential safety during earthquake exposure: a case study. Saf Sci 44:919–933
Ambraseys N, Smit P, Douglas J, Margaris B, Sigbjörnsson R, Ólafsson S, Suhadolc P, Costa G (2004) Internet-site for European strong-motion data. Boll Geofis Teor Appl 45(3):113–129
Bödvarsdottir I, Elklit A (2004) Psychological reactions in Icelandic earthquake survivors. Scand J Psychol 45:3–13
Cucci L, Tertulliani A (2007) Variation of human perceptiveness of earthquakes during seismic sequences. J Seismol 11:205–219
Fothergill A (1996) Gender, risk, and disaster. Int J Mass Emerg Disasters 14(1):33–56
Greenberg MR, Schneider DF (1995) Gender differences in risk perception: effects differ in stressed vs. non-stressed environments. Risk Anal 15(4):503–511
Grünthal G (1998) European macroseismic scale. European Seismological Commission, Luxemborg. (The English version)
Gustafson PE (1998) Gender differences in risk perception: theoretical and methodological perspectives. Risk Anal 18(6):805–811
Kung Y-W, Chen S-H (2012) Perception of earthquake risk in Taiwan: effects of gender and past earthquake experience. Risk Anal 32(9):1535–1546
Lindell MK, Perry RW (2000) Household adjustment to earthquake hazard: a review of research. Environ Behav 32(4):461–501
Musson RMW (2000) Intensity-based seismic risk assessment. Soil Dyn Earthq Eng 20(5–8):353–360
Musson RMW (2006) On the perceptibility of earthquakes. J Seismol 10:157–162
Rupakhety R, Sigbjörnsson R (2013) Rotation-invariant measures of earthquake response spectra. Bull Earthq Eng 11(6):1885–1893
Rupakhety R, Sigbjörnsson R (2014) Rotation-invariant mean duration of strong ground motion. Bull Earthq Eng 12(2):573–584
Sigbjörnsson R, Ólafsson S (2004) On the South Iceland earthquakes in June 2000; Strong-motion effects and damage. Boll Geofis Teor Appl 45:131–152
Sigbjörnsson R, Ragnarsdóttir S (2008) Gender dependent perception of earthquake effects. In: The 14th world conference on earthquake engineering, October 12–17, 2008, Beijing, China
Sigbjörnsson R, Rupakhety R (2014) A saga of the 1896 South Iceland earthquake sequence: magnitudes, macroseismic effects and damage. Bull Earthq Eng 12(1):171–184
Sigbjörnsson R, Ólafsson S, Snæbjörnsson JT (2007) Macroseismic effects related to strong ground motion: a study of the South Iceland earthquakes in June 2000. Bull Earthq Eng 5:591–608
Slovic P (1987) Perception of risk. Science 236:280–285
Slovic P, Fischhoff B, Lichtenstein S (1982) Why study risk perception? Risk Anal 2(2):83–93
Slovic P, Finucane ML, Peters E, MacGregor DG (2004) Risk as analysis and risk as feelings: some thoughts about affect, reason, risk, and rationality. Risk Anal 24(2):311–322
Wood HO, Neuman F (1931) Modified Mercalli intensity scale. Bull Seismol Soc Am 21(4):277–283
Acknowledgments
The present work was supported by grants from the University of Iceland Research Fund and RANNIS, the Icelandic Centre for Research. Furthermore, we thank the people participating in the survey for their important contribution as well as the staff at the Earthquake Engineering Research Centre for administrating the survey. We appreciate contribution of Dr. Stephen Platt who reviewed this work and provided valuable comments and suggestions for improvement.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2018 Springer International Publishing AG
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Sigbjörnsson, R., Ragnarsdóttir, S., Rupakhety, R. (2018). Is Perception of Earthquake Effects Gender Dependent?. In: Rupakhety, R., Ólafsson, S. (eds) Earthquake Engineering and Structural Dynamics in Memory of Ragnar Sigbjörnsson. ICESD 2017. Geotechnical, Geological and Earthquake Engineering, vol 44. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-62099-2_18
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-62099-2_18
Published:
Publisher Name: Springer, Cham
Print ISBN: 978-3-319-62098-5
Online ISBN: 978-3-319-62099-2
eBook Packages: Earth and Environmental ScienceEarth and Environmental Science (R0)