Effect of critical thinking disposition on household earthquake preparedness.

Critical thinking is a form of open-minded thinking that aims to gain insight into how to improve things. The focus is on criticism and applicability of the resultant knowledge. Despite the existence of theories linking the critical thinking disposition and hazard adjustment adoption, there have been no previous studies examining the association between this disposition and household earthquake preparedness. The present study intends to identify this association. Data were collected from 598 respondents through a questionnaire survey. Household earthquake preparedness was measured by the number of adjustments adopted in the household. In regression analysis, taking into account interactions between the considered variables, it was found that logical thinking awareness, a subconstruct of the critical thinking disposition, was a significant predictor of household preparedness. Furthermore, inquisitiveness, another subconstruct of critical thinking disposition, was found to moderate the association between risk perception and earthquake preparedness. This finding suggests that people who have the motivation to tackle challenging situations actually do so in the context of earthquake preparedness. The practical implications of the findings are also discussed.