The antecedents of risk perception in the context of natural hazards: A multi-level meta-analysis

Risk perception is one of the major determinants of risk coping and, thus, of risk adaptation to natural hazards, whether resulting from climate change (e.g., sea level rise) or not (e.g., earthquakes). To understand how to increase an individual’s risk perception of natural hazards, it is then crucial to identify the antecedents of risk perception. However, a cross-hazard meta-analysis of such a state of the art is still lacking. Thus, considering the determinants of risk perception for natural hazards, the aim was twofold: to identify the effect size of each determinant on risk perception and to find possible moderators of these relationships. Regarding the first aim, several antecedents taken from the literature proved to be significant, and they can be classified into three clusters: 1) factors related to the relationship individual-risk; 2) factors related to the relationship individual-community; and 3) individual factors (i.e., both sociodemographic and dispositional factors). The first cluster (i.e., individual-risk factors) showed the highest number of determinants with significant medium and large effects; then, the second cluster (i.e., individual-community factors) showed some determinants with significant small and medium effects; finally, the third cluster (i.e., individual factors) showed determinants having either only small significant effects (i.e., sociodemographic ones) or a few significant medium and large effects (i.e., dispositional ones). Regarding moderators, both social norms and the level of risk in the sample’s area exerted significant effects, in some cases. Theoretical and methodological implications include theoretical advancements for natural hazards risk perception predictors modelling, and future studies’ methodological choices.