title: The public's preparedness: self-reliance, flashbulb memories, and conservative values.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  We surveyed how many US residents engaged in 6 preparedness activities and measured the relationship between engagement and personal experience in hazard events, flashbulb memories of major events, self-reliance, and other indicators of a conservative philosophy.
  
  
  METHODS
  We used random digit dialing for national landline (75%) and cell phone (25%) surveys of 1930 US residents from July 6, 2011, to September 9, 2011; 1080 of the sample lived near 6 US Department of Energy nuclear waste management facilities and 850 were a national random sample.
  
  
  RESULTS
  The median respondent engaged in 3 of the 6 activities; those who disproportionately engaged in 4 or more had experienced a hazard event, had distressing and strong flashbulb memories of major hazard events, and had strong feelings about the need for greater self-reliance. The results for the national and US Department of Energy site-specific surveys were almost identical.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  A cadre of US residents are disproportionately engaged in disaster preparedness, and they typically have stronger negative memories of past disasters and tend to be self-reliant. How their efforts can or should be integrated into local preparedness efforts is unclear.
authors.affiliation: Edward J Bloustein School, Rutgers University, New Brunswick, NJ 08901-1958, USA.
authors.forename: Michael R
authors.initials: MR
authors.lastname: Greenberg
authors.forename: Susannah
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Dyen
authors.forename: Stacey
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Elliott
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D002959:Civil Defense / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D055867:Cyclonic Storms; D003625:Data Collection; D004190:Disasters; D055866:Earthquakes; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008568:Memory; D008875:Middle Aged; D026684:Personal Autonomy; D059392:Petroleum Pollution; D011057:Politics; D047851:September 11 Terrorist Attacks; D057192:Tsunamis; D014481:United States; D055815:Young Adult