Thread by @JohnCarrEM

Good news! My dissertation, Disaster Movies and the Perception of Human Behavior Myths in Disasters, has been approved and is up for viewing! I am so excited to share my findings with this community.

Here is a quick thread of what I found:

#EMGTwitter #PhDone

Since 2020 @SamLMontano and I have been studying disaster movies and how they influence the public’s perceptions of disasters. Multiple researchers attributed the prevalence of disaster myths to disaster movies, but no empirical studies had supported or refuted that claim.

For my dissertation I decided to address this topic. My study asked college students to either watch San Andreas (experimental group) or Ant Man (control), and complete surveys asking how frequently they thought certain human behaviors occurred during disasters.

The behaviors included disaster myths, as well as alternate pro-social behaviors that are more common according to the literature. My sample started with 121 students, with a total of 47 students completing the survey.

Finding: Perception of myths varied: Some myths were viewed as infrequent (Role Abandonment), some myths were viewed as frequent (Price Gouging), and some were mixed with the myth and reality having mixed views of frequency (Looting, Martial Law).

Finding: The experimental group saw changes in their perceptions of multiple myths: Looting (+), violence (+), martial law (+), and role abandonment (-) all saw changes of 15% or greater between the pre-test and immediate post-test, with some lingering effects at the 6-week mark.

Finding: Perception of Looting saw an increase of roughly 29% in both the experimental and control group, with both decreasing between immediate post-test and the 6-week post-test.

So what does all this mean?

First, we may need to update our list of myths. Our perceptions are a product of our experiences, and the defining disasters of each generation may be influencing our perception of myths.

The inflation and price hikes during Covid may have influenced our perception of price gouging in disasters. 9/11 may have cemented the idea that first responders do not leave their post. We need to unpack this to better understand how myths are perceived by different groups.

Second, this study supports the claim that disaster movies have an influence on viewers, with the effects decreasing in the weeks after viewing. The experimental group saw significant changes in multiple factors, and lingering effects at the 6-week mark.

Third, this study collected data during a critical window of time during Hurricane Ian, and supports the claim that the media and elected officials influence viewers’ perceptions of looting.

The week students took the immediate post-test was the same week that Hurricane Ian made landfall, and the same week that elected officials were warning against looting after the hurricane. This may explain why the control group saw a similar change in looting to the exp. group.

Here are the usual research caveats- My sample size was relatively small, from a geographically limited area (4 midwest colleges), limiting the generalizability of the study. This is one of the first studies of its kind, and needs further refinement, repetition, and replication.

That being said, this study adds data and lays the groundwork for future efforts. My hope would be to treat this study as a pilot, and repeat the study with a larger and more diverse sample.

I would also like to take a deeper look at the disaster myths and their prevalence in our modern context. I am taking this holiday to catch my breath, then back to the books in 2024!

For those interested in a deeper dive, here is a link to the full dissertation:

digitalcommons.jsu.edu/cgi/viewconten…

*A quick note on defining “myths”. The term “myth” often implies absolute impossibility, however it is more accurate to define these as infrequent behaviors that are exaggerated and believed to be more frequent than they actually are.