Download Understanding Peoples attitude to Fire Risk

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Michael S. Wright
[email protected]
21st April 2009
Understanding peoples’ attitudes
towards fire risk
Fulcrum House
5 Southern Ct, South St
Reading
RG1 4QS
0118 938 7700
10 Fitzroy Square
London
W1T 5HP
020 7874 1570
1
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Who is at risk?
• 47% of fatal fires
involved substance misuse;
• 49% careless use of
cigarettes;
• 74% were single adults;
• Mental or physical
impairment;
• Often in contact with
care or social services;
• Person usually intimate
with the fire & in room of
fire origin;
• Men.
*Human Behaviour in fatal fires. Report for CLG. 2006
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Who is at risk?
Deprivation, ill health, lone parents & fire
Rate pmp of Dwelling Fires by Rate pmp of People of Ill Health
for Unitary and Local Authorities (2002-2004)
Rate pmp of Dwelling Fires by Deprivation (IMD score) for
Unitary and Local Authroities (2002-2004)
3500
Rate of dwelling fires pmp
Line of best fit
3000
Correlation = 0.61
2500
2000
1500
1000
500
Line of best fit
3000
Correlation = 0.77
2500
2000
1500
1000
500
0
0
0
0.05
0.1
0.15
0.2
0
10
20
30
Rate of people of Ill health pm p
IMD score
Rate pmp of Dwelling Fires by Rate pmp of Lone Parents with
Child (ren) for Unitary and Local Authorities (2002-2004)
3500
Line of best fit
Rate of dwelling fires pmp
Rate of dwelling fires pmp
3500
3000
Correlation = 0.77
2500
2000
1500
1000
500
0
0
0.01
0.02
0.03
0.04
0.05
Rate of lone parents pm p
*Socio-demographic factors and FRS performance. Report for CLG. 2006
0.06
40
50
60
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Previous reviews
• Few people considered the risk from fire
in their homes to be high;
 Even if perceive a risk people disable
alarms due to factors such as false
alarms;
 Perception of risk does not associate
strongly with precautionary behaviour;
 For example, cigarette smokers perceive
themselves to be at higher risk, but have a
lower ownership of fire prevention aids.
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Aims of the work
• Understanding attitudes to fire;
• Identify ways of changing
attitudes and behaviours;
• Explore the role of FRS
Community Advocates.
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Psychological literature
The way we think - cognition
• ‘Heuristics’
– ‘Rules of thumb’ to help make judgments.
– Availability heuristic:
• Events easily brought to mind are judged to
be more likely.
– Affective heuristic;
• Reject or accept message because of
‘emotions’ it raises.
• Cognitive dissonance;
– Mental discomfort from holding conflicting
thoughts.
– People develop beliefs to reduce the
psychological discomfort of behaving illogically.
– Smokers may focus on examples of people who
live to the age of 80 despite smoking.
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Psychological literature
What we belief and how we feel
• Health psychology
– Individual weighs expected benefits (social, physical,
etc) of an action, against the perceived risk and the
negative consequences of the options.
• Experiential learning
– If people expect an activity to be beneficial, they will
tend to engage in it.
– If they expect the activity to be damaging, they may
avoid it.
– It hasn’t happen before…
– Maybe self reinforcing – avoid “risky” situations.
• Social norms
– May encourage unhealthy behaviour (e.g. binge
drinking) or discourage it (e.g. drink driving).
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Risk communication
• The extent to which the ‘message’ is
accepted is influenced by whether the
audience trust & identify with the
messenger;
• Language - what do people “hear you say”.
– A conservative risk estimate.
• Messages need to:
– Empower’ people,
– Provide practical advice that is
proportionate to the risk,
– Raise awareness of risk hazards;
– Without creating a sense of ‘fatalism’.
• Message needs to be based on an
understanding of how the message may be
received.
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13 focus groups
• Elderly:
– Living independently
– In sheltered accommodation
• Single middle aged men x 3 groups
• Lone parents
• Alcoholic men x 2 groups
• Low income parents
• Disabled – visually impaired x2
Also
• BME – Somali adults (mostly parents)
• BME – Somali young persons
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Factors that influence risk
perceptions
Person specific
• Individual vulnerability
• Level of personal control over the risk
• Perceived probability
Common factors
• Predictability
• Consequences – loss of life
• Media coverage
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Are you more at risk than others?
Yes
• Somali parents:
– Due to children
• Single men &
alcoholics:
– Smoking, drinking
• Elderly independent
living:
– Vulnerable
No
• Single mothers:
– Careful because of
children
• Young Somali:
– Do not smoke, can
escape;
• Visually impaired:
– More careful due to
their disability
• Elderly in sheltered
accommodation:
– They are cared for
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Perception of fire risk
• Varies according to their subjective assessment of:
– Vulnerability
– Level of care and protection
– Potential fatal consequences
– Affective features (level of control, predictability of
risk)
• Varies according to:
– Life style/stage
– Household type
– Individual attitudes
– First vs second generation immigrants
• People with impairments – physical/substance misuse
– Aware they are at greater risk
– However they take extra precautions and coping
strategies to cope with the risk – therefore they are
not at greater risk than others
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Awareness of fire risk & precautions
• Generally aware of fire risks, precautions and
how to respond;
• Some are concerned;
• All are receptive to advice;
• They are reminded of fire if they know someone
has had one, TV advert or it’s in the news.
But:
• Fire risk – at back of people’s mind;
• It won’t happen to me;
• Rarely proactively seek out advice;
• Could escape if fire occurred;
• Already take some precautions.
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Encouraging behaviour change
• National & local fire safety media work was perceived
to be effective
– Need for these to be continued nationally & locally
• Promotional work is most effective when:
– Associated image can be identified by the
audience, e.g:
• Everyday people similar to the target audience
• Victims of fire
– Addresses issues that are perceived to be specific
to audience:
• Mothers cooking
• Fire in the family home
• Elderly person trapped in flat
• Drunk person coming in after being at the pub
and cooking
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Encouraging behaviour change
• Imagery:
– Should be graphical and ‘shocking’ to get attention
– Need to convey sense of fire visually & auditory.
• Educational – causes and how to respond to
different types of fires, e.g:
– Explaining bedtime routines
– Reminding people to change detector batteries
• Empowering:
– Show people how they can practically prevent &
respond to fires
– Flash back story lines:
• What would have happened if person had
taken advice;
– Second chance story line
• Man wakes up from a dream of a fire – show
what could have done.
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Encouraging behaviour change
• Locations of messages reflected type of
person:
– Radio – visually impaired and some elderly
– Children’s TV for single mothers
– Sky Sports for single men
• People are influenced by friends and family
– Adverts to encourage friends and family to
encourage peers to adopt fire precautions
– Fire safety talks – that encourage people to
advise and support their friends and family
to adopt fire safety precautions
– Work with/via community groups.
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Structured approach to fire safety
• Segmenting people into discrete groups
• Understanding people’s level of knowledge of fire
precautions/ attitudes to fire safety /advice
• Identifying particular fire safety issues and attitudes
to be addressed for that group;
• Identify channels via which to communicate with
people;
• Developing communications materials that match
individuals’ needs, such as auditory materials for
visually impaired;
• Using messengers and images that the specific
audience identify with;
• Evaluating the effectiveness of the strategy;
• Repeating fire safety promotional work on sufficient
frequency to maintain awareness.
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Conclusion
• Current attitudinal barriers:
– It won’t happen to me;
– Thinking you do enough already;
– Not accepting the message applies to you.
• Need a sustained mix of:
–
–
–
–
General awareness raising;
Show how people can “do more”;
Tailored & targeted messages;
Empowering messages as well as communicating the
risk of fire.
• National & local CFS via adverts, PR, Hot
strikes, HFRCs, advocates etc
• Proviso
– Do not disengage low risk groups but saying fire risk
is an issue only for vulnerable people