Disaster Collective Memory Practice’s Impact on Preparedness Behavior: Case Study of South Korea, Taiwan, Indonesia, and Malaysia

Disaster collective memory is an important aspect in disaster management, especially to ensure residents in disaster-prone areas remember and understand the disaster threats they face. However, the impacts of disaster collective memory on residents’ preparedness behavior have not yet been examined. This study aims to understand the effects of disaster collective memory on preparedness behavior through a psychological lens in South Korea, Taiwan, Indonesia, and Malaysia. This research involved data compiled from 1600 participants, 400 from each country, to gather residents’ perspectives on preparedness and to identify factors generated by disaster collective memory practices. This study examined these variables as mediators: threat appraisal (TA), social norms (DSN), coping appraisal (CA), and trust (Tr). Structural equation modeling (SEM) is used to estimate intercorrelations among variables. The analysis result confirmed the positive direct impact of disaster collective memory on preparedness behavior. The mediation analysis also revealed the relatively weak influence of the mediators on this relationship. Each country shows difference level of collective memory effect and the mediator’s influence on it. The result shows that collective memory's impact on preparedness is universal, while mediators’ effects are culturally specific. The results of this study can provide quantitative evidence of the correlation between collective memory and preparedness, and the findings can also be applied in each country’s disaster policymaking as evidence-based recommendations to improve residents’ preparedness behavior through collective memory.