Responses to perceived terrorism risk by self-identified survivalists: An exploratory study

Survivalists are individuals who stockpile resources to prepare for a wide-scale disaster or societal collapse, generally at a degree well beyond that of the average person. To date, an in-depth understanding of how survivalists perceive and respond to terrorism risk remains lacking in the research literature. This study applies Protection Management Theory (PMT) to address how perceived severity of a future terrorist attack, perceived risk of a future terrorist attack, and perceived effectiveness of self-protection relate to self-protective action and self-identification as a survivalist. Data were collected with a web survey administered to a nationwide sample of 520 adults in the U.S. Only higher perceived effectiveness of self-protection was associated with both a greater number of self-protective actions taken and a greater likelihood of identifying as a survivalist. The perceived seriousness of a terrorist attack occurring was only associated with identifying as a survivalist. Respondents’ reasoning indicated that a greater percentage of survivalists than others identified uncertainty of risk as motivation for their actions. Survivalists were less likely to mention fear in their answers than other respondents.