Rating the Risk of the Rip: Public Risk Perception of Rip Currents in the United States

Rip currents contribute to around 70 deaths per year on average in the United States, posing a serious, annual threat to the safety of beachgoers. Historically, research on rip currents has centered around the public’s ability to identify the hazard and their knowledge about what protective action to take if caught. While pre-decision processes such as identification are important, these processes elicit core perceptions of the environmental threat, which ultimately inform protective behavioral decisions. There is a gap in research on what are the public’s core risk perceptions for rip currents. Thus, to address this gap, this project evaluates two research questions: (i) what is the public’s knowledge about rip currents?, and (ii) what is the public’s risk perception of rip currents? Data comes from the 2020-2023 annual Tropical Cyclone and Society Surveys (TC20, TC21, TC22, and TC23), which were designed and administered by the Institute for Public Policy Research and Analysis (IPPRA) at the University of Oklahoma via an online panel reflecting the U.S. population. Initial results and demographic trends will be presented, as well as applications for future research and potentially public safety campaigns.