A Closer Look at Perceived Tornado Hot Spots and No-Go Zones: Disentangling the Effects of Place Attachment and Local Climatology

In two recent studies, the presentation team found evidence that people form highly place-dependent notions of tornado risk proneness.  These studies, which elicited in-depth feedback from small samples, revealed the complex ways real-time information from meteorologists interacts with a priori expectations of tornado movement through particular landscapes, towns, and regions, and some evidence was found to suggest that these perceptions might influence the behaviors of local populations before and during tornado incidents.  Several hypotheses were also offered to explain the perceptions.  Following these projects, the present research greatly expands the sample size in one particular region to showcase the variability of risk perceptions and behavioral intentions by place, and to test among the hypotheses generated in earlier work.