Is perception of earthquake effects gender dependent?

Abstract

This paper addresses the question of whether or not the perception of earthquake effects is gender dependent. The case considered is the south Iceland earthquakes of June 2000. This includes two moderate-sized, shallow, strike-slip earthquakes with high peak ground acceleration in the epicentral area. After the earthquakes, a survey on earthquake intensities was carried out by the Earthquake Engineering Research Centre of the University of Iceland. The survey also included questions addressing safety issues and demographic information. The data dealt with herein cover 249 respondents in the epicentral area. In the analysis presented herein, emphasis is placed on the following questions: Did you manage to seek shelter inside a house during the earthquake? Did you manage to keep your balance? How long did it take you to recover? The main finding is that the data indicate a tendency towards gender-dependent perception of earthquake effects, which in some cases appears to be statistically significant. In particular, the time taken to recover seems to be very different between male and female respondents. The results also indicate that female respondents are biased towards higher estimation of felt earthquake intensity, while the opposite is true for male respondents.