International Research on Disaster Behavior: Origin, Topics, and Findings

Since the late 1940s and early 1950s, studies on disaster behavior have become increasingly broader and deeper from different perspectives of structural functionalism, hazards, and social production of disaster. Relevant studies contribute a lot to understanding impacts of disaster to society, promoting disaster study development, and facilitating disaster risk reduction. This study reviews the development of international research on disaster behavior. Also, it synthesizes the main study topics including hazard adjustment, evacuation, deviant behavior, and self-and mutual rescue and volunteer behavior, as well as summarizes their main theses and findings. It aims to provide references for relevant researches in China. It is argued that theoretically and practically, conducting research on disaster behavior under Chinese social-cultural background is warranted and meaningful.