ABSTRACT
In this chapter, the authors explore the notion of perceived vulnerability to earthquake hazards, in the context of the panoply of other worries that confront people in their everyday lives. The most striking finding was the culture-specificity of the problems that were perceived as serious: the degree of worry felt for each problem varied considerably between the two cultures. California respondents were most worried about crime and deterioration of the family. Japanese respondents were most worried about pollution and earthquakes. The finding that Japanese express much greater worry about earthquakes than do Americans is replicated in another question in which we asked respondents how worried they are about an earthquake affecting their communities. Females in both societies expressed a much higher level of worry than males, corroborating findings about the relationship between sex and concern with technological hazards found by Flynn et al. The Japanese respondents generally exhibited a higher level of worry about all problems than the American respondents.
