ABSTRACT
Perceived risk, the perceived vulnerability of individuals and households to earthquake hazards, is the most important predictor of earthquake insurance purchase. This chapter reviews the overall perceptions of risk within the State of California, the factors that should be associated theoretically with perceived risk, the empirical findings on trends in and co-variates of perceived risk, and the way in which Californians portray the geographic variability of earthquake hazard within the state. Physical proximity to a hazard should induce perceived vulnerability. To corroborate the lack of association between the economic and demographic variables, geographic risk, and perceived risk, a set of principal component analyses were calculated. Thomas Drabek reviews several individual-level social, economic or demographic factors that have been empirically associated with hazard perception. Individual socioeconomic and demographic factors are frequently analyzed in a search for possible covariations. Californians perceive themselves to be highly vulnerable to damage from earthquakes.
