The role of trust in residents’ fire wise actions
James D. Absher A C D and Jerry J. Vaske B D
+ Author Affiliations
- Author Affiliations
A USDA Forest Service, Pacific Southwest Research Station, 4955 Canyon Crest Drive, Riverside, CA 92507, USA.
B Human Dimension of Natural Resources, Colorado State University, Fort Collins, CO 80523, USA. Email: jerryv@cnr.colostate.edu
C Corresponding author. Email: jabsher@fs.fed.us
D Authors have contributed equally to this paper.
International Journal of Wildland Fire 20(2) 318-325 https://doi.org/10.1071/WF09049
Submitted: 13 May 2009 Accepted: 7 July 2010 Published: 30 March 2011
Abstract
Residents’ trust in the managing agency has been heralded as a necessary precursor to success in preventing wildland fire losses in the wildland–urban interface. Trust, however, is a complex concept. Homeowners’ specific fire wise actions may not be easily linked to general measures of trust. This article uses two distinct trust indices to predict residents’ intention to do fire wise actions to their house and adjacent site. Results of structural equation models using a survey of Colorado Front Range residents (n = 456) revealed strong explanatory power: 85% (house behaviours) and 72% (site behaviours) of the variation in intentions were accounted for by trust, previous fire wise behaviours and the perceived effectiveness of the actions. The trust measures, however, were not major influences. ‘Trust in agency competence’ weakly predicted perceived effectiveness for site behaviours; ‘trust in agency information’ weakly predicted past house behaviours. Neither trust variable directly affected intentions to perform these actions. We conclude that trust is best viewed as a broad precursor whose influence on behavioural intentions is mediated by other constructs (e.g. past behaviour, perceived effectiveness). The implications for further work to understand the role of trust and the possible social mechanisms involved are discussed.
Additional keywords: fire wise behaviours, social trust, wildland fire, wildland–urban interface.
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