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Social capital as a mediating factor in emergency preparedness and concerns about terrorism
Author(s) -
Hausman Alice J.,
Hanlon Alexandra,
Seals Brenda
Publication year - 2007
Publication title -
journal of community psychology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.585
H-Index - 86
eISSN - 1520-6629
pISSN - 0090-4392
DOI - 10.1002/jcop.20203
Subject(s) - terrorism , preparedness , social capital , metropolitan area , psychology , set (abstract data type) , political science , medicine , pathology , computer science , law , programming language
The purpose of this study was to investigate how social capital might be instrumental in mediating concerns about terrorism and promoting appropriate responses for emergency preparedness. Results are presented from a random‐digit dialed survey of a metropolitan area measuring individual characteristics as well as community‐level characteristics as possible predictors of the practice of emergency preparedness and concerns about future terrorism. Results show that social capital is positively associated with increased preparedness and with increased concern about future terrorism events. The authors suggest that the information sharing and norm‐setting processes related to high social capital help set the stage for both increased awareness of the consequences of terrorism and the value of increased preparedness. © 2007 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Comm Psychol 35: 1073–1083, 2007.