Who Responds to Emergency Preparedness Messages: The Story of Lions, Lambs, and Lone Wolves

Background: Despite considerable investment of federal funds directed at increasing preparedness since the 2001 terrorist attacks, overall population preparedness has barely increased. In US survey data collected by Columbia's National Center for Disaster Preparedness between 2003 and 2008, the proportion of citizens who reported having a minimal family emergency plan has only increased from 37% to 43%.

Methods: In two national random-digit dial surveys of US residents conducted in 2007 and 2008, 2931 respondents were asked whether others would turn to the respondent to lead them in an emergency (the “Lions”), whether they would safeguard only themselves and their families (the “Lone Wolves”), or whether they would wait for others to help them (the “Lambs”).

Results: In the pooled cross-sectional surveys, 21% of respondents reported themselves as Lions, 57% as Lone Wolves, and 22% as Lambs. In a logistic regression analysis of the data, Lions were over twice as likely as Lambs to have complete family emergency plans, and Lone Wolves one and a half times as likely. A multinomial regression analysis revealed that individual self-efficacy was among the most salient factors associated with Lions, and prior CPR training and disaster experience was more prevalent among both Lions and Lone Wolves.

Conclusions: Given the difficulty of increasing overall individual or family preparedness beyond a fixed ceiling, preparedness strategies might be more effectively tailored to enhancing skills and situational awareness among the Lions, and by encouraging some proportion of the Lone Wolves and Lambs to be more skilled and more community-focused.