“It Could have been Much Worse”: From Travelers' Accounts of Two Natural Disasters

Abstract

Studies of people involved in accidents and disasters have usually focused on traumatic effects. In contrast this paper summarizes two studies of travelers exposed to the effects of natural disasters where luck is a pivotal theme. Participants in the first study were 85 Norwegian tourists, interviewed after their return from the Tsunami disaster in Southeast Asia in December 2004. The second study reports interviews with 20 Norwegian travelers who had their travel plans disrupted by the volcanic eruption in Iceland in April 2010. Despite the differences in severity and dramatic qualities of these two disasters, some parallel themes are discernible: Downward counterfactual thoughts about how the situation could have been still worse, downward comparisons with those who were more afflicted, and a focus on being lucky rather than unlucky “after all”. These features can partly be attributed to qualities of natural disasters: They cannot be avoided or undone, they are uncontrollable and potentially catastrophic, and they affect a great number of people at the same time. Downward comparisons have also a self-enhancing and mood-repairing effect, reducing the impact of a threatening experience.

Keywords:

• Counterfactual thinking
• luck
• natural disasters
• ash cloud
• tsunami

Acknowledgements

The Tsunami study was supported by a grant from the Norwegian Health Directorate to the Norwegian Centre for Violence and Traumatic Stress Studies. We thank Tine K. Jensen for access to the interviews, and for her contribution to the original report of this material. The Ash Cloud study was partly supported by an internal grant from the Department of Psychology to the first author.

Notes

The interviewer asked her acquaintances whether they knew anyone who had been affected by the ash plume. This sample was then used to recruit acquaintances of acquaintances until a sufficient collection of stories had been gathered.