Behavioural and psychological responses of the public during a major power outage:  A literature review

G. James Rubin; M. Brooke Rogers

doi:10.1016/j.ijdrr.2019.101226

Behavioural and psychological responses of the public during a major power outage: A literature review

G. James Rubin, M. Brooke Rogers

Research output: Contribution to journal › Review article › peer-review

29 Citations (Scopus)

620 Downloads (Pure)

Abstract

Widespread electrical power outages pose a serious risk to modern societies. During an outage, the behavioural and psychological responses of members of the public will influence the overall health, economic and social impacts. In this review, we identified 47 studies containing data relating to public reactions after a major loss of electricity. These highlighted eight key messages: 1) Preparing the public should reduce the impact of an outage; 2) Specific vulnerable groups including older adults and those with psychiatric or medical conditions will require targeted help to prepare; 3) Clear public health communications will be needed to reduce, for example, carbon monoxide or food poisoning; 4) The loss of communication infrastructure is likely to be an important stressor among the public; 5) Panic is unlikely; 6) Acts of altruism will, probably, outweigh acts of criminality; 7) The public's information needs will focus on ‘what has happened’ and ‘when will power be restored’;

Original language	English
Article number	101226
Journal	International Journal of Disaster Risk Reduction
Volume	38
Early online date	2 Jul 2019
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijdrr.2019.101226
Publication status	Published - 1 Aug 2019

Keywords

Behaviour
Blackout
Community resilience
Electricity
Power outage
Resilience

UN SDGs

This output contributes to the following UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)

Access to Document

10.1016/j.ijdrr.2019.101226

Behavioural and psychological responses_RUBIN_Accepted 28 June 2019_GREEN AAM (CC BY NC ND)Licence: CC BY-NC-ND

Cite this

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abstract = "Widespread electrical power outages pose a serious risk to modern societies. During an outage, the behavioural and psychological responses of members of the public will influence the overall health, economic and social impacts. In this review, we identified 47 studies containing data relating to public reactions after a major loss of electricity. These highlighted eight key messages: 1) Preparing the public should reduce the impact of an outage; 2) Specific vulnerable groups including older adults and those with psychiatric or medical conditions will require targeted help to prepare; 3) Clear public health communications will be needed to reduce, for example, carbon monoxide or food poisoning; 4) The loss of communication infrastructure is likely to be an important stressor among the public; 5) Panic is unlikely; 6) Acts of altruism will, probably, outweigh acts of criminality; 7) The public's information needs will focus on {\textquoteleft}what has happened{\textquoteright} and {\textquoteleft}when will power be restored{\textquoteright};",

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