Information response

      Residents watch a fire burn on a hill behind their house. Difficulty in deciding whether to defend or evacuate can cause indecision. Photo: CFA Strategic Communications
    during a bushfire. Second, people who delay                responses. This provided a quite satisfactory              was a motive for decision delay, the study
    this decision are more likely to spend valuable            20% response rate. The March 2012 survey                   asked people to indicate who would be
    time on deciding during a fire, compared with              was required to measure any changes in                     responsible for saving their house and for
    people who intend to respond with a concrete               behaviour. As a result, this survey was only               saving their lives during a fire (government,
    action. This can result in late evacuation                 distributed to the 350 households that                     themselves or a mix of both). Theory would
    (McLennan et al., 2012), and thus further                  completed the initial survey at the beginning              predict that people might delay their decision
    risk of harm. The study presented in this Fire             of the bushfire season. 189 usable responses               as a means of avoiding responsibility for
    Note uncovers the causes behind this delay                 were received – an excellent response rate                 any negative outcomes resulting from their
    in decision making. In addition, the results               of 54%.                                                    decision, such as their house burning down
    of this study were used to suggest strategies                                                                         as a result of having chosen to evacuate. This
                                                               The October 2011 survey measured several
    to reduce the problems associated with such                                                                           is because outcomes resulting from a decision
                                                               plausible causes of decision delay: two
    delay and identify possible obstacles that                                                                            lead to greater perceived responsibility
                                                               personality factors (general indecisiveness,
    agencies may face in applying these strategies.                                                                       compared with outcomes resulting from
                                                               Frost and Shows, 1993; and need for
                                                                                                                          decision avoidance. The main dependent
    BUSHFIRE CRC RESEARCH                                      cognition, Cacioppo and Petty, 1982), lack
                                                                                                                          variable, their intended response to a bushfire,
    Bushfire CRC researchers from the University               of perceived relevance of the decision (i.e.
                                                                                                                          including several options marked as decision
    of Western Australia, Murdoch University and               low risk-perception), and decision difficulty
                                                                                                                          delay (e.g. wait and see), was measured both
    the University of Tasmania developed a survey              due to a lack of difference in attractiveness
                                                                                                                          before and after the bushfire season.
    that was distributed to residents of bushfire-             between the option of defending a house or
    prone areas around Western Australia across                evacuating. To gauge this decision difficulty,             RESEARCH OUTCOMES
    the 2011/2012 fire season. In addition to                  researchers measured how much value people                 Most of the survey respondents indicated
    measuring the anticipated fire response of                 expected to derive from defending their house              they would delay their decision of whether to
    residents, the survey measured plausible                   versus evacuating early. These value scores                defend or evacuate: 68.1 % in October 2011,
    causes of decision delay. These plausible                  were based on the importance of several                    and 67.2% in March 2012.
    causes were derived from social psychology                 outcomes (e.g. saving the house, saving
                                                                                                                          Across the two survey periods, about 23%
    literature on decision avoidance. Surveys were             livestock, keeping the children safe) and the
                                                                                                                          expected they would defend their property
    distributed to residents on two occasions:                 likelihood of achieving these outcomes by
                                                                                                                          throughout the fire, and about 6% expected
    the first in October 2011 (beginning of the                either defending or evacuating.
                                                                                                                          to leave as soon as they knew there was a
    bushfire season), and the second in March
                                                               The March 2012 survey measured another                     fire threatening their town or suburb. Less
    2012 (end of the bushfire season).
                                                               plausible cause of indecision: the avoidance               than 1% would not be home as they would
    The October 2011 survey was sent to 1700                   of responsibility for bad outcomes. To                     leave their property on days of extreme and
    households, resulting in 350 completed                     understand whether avoiding responsibility                 catastrophic fire danger, and less than 2%

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