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Helping Natural Disaster Victims Depends on Characteristics and Perceptions of Victims. A Response to “Who Helps Natural Disaster Victims?”
Author(s) -
McManus Jessica L.,
Saucier Donald A.
Publication year - 2012
Publication title -
analyses of social issues and public policy
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.479
H-Index - 31
eISSN - 1530-2415
pISSN - 1529-7489
DOI - 10.1111/j.1530-2415.2012.01287.x
Subject(s) - natural disaster , hurricane katrina , perception , natural (archaeology) , psychology , disaster response , affect (linguistics) , social psychology , emergency management , geography , political science , communication , archaeology , neuroscience , meteorology , law
Natural disasters have devastating consequences, creating the need for local and international help. This commentary is a response to “Who Helps Natural Disaster Victims” (Marjanovic, Struthers, and Greenglass, 2011) and provides further evidence to better understand how intergroup attitudes may affect decisions to help victims of natural disasters. We argue that potential helpers’ attitudes toward the victims may impact their perceptions of the helping situation and the decision to provide help. Hurricane Katrina and the earthquake in Haiti are used as examples of natural disasters where intergroup attitudes may have influenced the helping response. Examining intergroup perceptions in helping situations is imperative to alleviating the immediate and long term needs of those affected by natural disasters.