A conceptual replication of the Psychological Typhoon Eye effect in the aftermath of the Petrinja earthquake in Croatia

TL;DR

This study aimed to replicate the Psychological Typhoon Eye effect after an earthquake in Croatia but found instead that those most affected experienced the most psychological distress.

Contribution

The study provides a conceptual replication attempt and introduces the 'ripple effect' as a potential default response to natural disasters.

Findings

No evidence for the Psychological Typhoon Eye effect was found in the study.

A ripple effect was observed, with higher distress among those most affected by the earthquake.

The ripple effect may represent a more typical psychological response to natural disasters.

Abstract

The Psychological Typhoon Eye (PTE) effect refers to the observation that those living in the epicenters of natural disasters or public emergencies exhibit lower levels of psychological distress than those living further away. The effect has been described in the aftermath of multiple public emergencies, including the 2008 Wenchuan earthquake. However, despite its potential importance for emergency relieve, this phenomenon has received little research attention and requires further replication. The goals of this study were to replicate the PTE effect using both the original items used in prior research and using the validated Depression, Anxiety, and Stress Scales (DASS).

A cross-sectional survey was conducted following an earthquake with a magnitude of 6.4 on the Richter scale that occurred in December 2020 in Petrinja, Croatia. The sample consisted of 316 participants living in Croatia at the time of the earthquake. Questionnaires were administered through an online survey, including the DASS, the items used in previous research, and questionnaires measuring general and earthquake-specific coping. Exposure to the earthquake was operationalized as the degree of devastation participants had experienced (i.e., the degree of structural damage to their home as assessed by local authorities). In line with previous work, we tested for an inverse relationship between the experienced level of devastation and the different measures of psychological distress (i.e., the items used in previous work and the DASS).

We found no evidence for the PTE effect in our study. Instead, we observed a ripple effect, whereby those most affected by the earthquake showed the most psychological distress. We argue that the ripple effect, rather than the PTE effect, should be seen as the default psychological response pattern to natural disasters and emergencies.

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