How does culture affect individual adaptation to climate-driven floods?

Abstract

Expanding human developments and climate change have exacerbated the impact of natural hazards worldwide. In particular, accelerating flood risks entails that more traditional top down measures are complimented by individual adaptation at the household level. Worldwide, social surveys provide rich information about factors motivating individual adaptation to climate-driven floods. Notably, much of this empirical research has focused on the Global North. Yet, empirical research explicitly measuring whether and how climate change adaptation varies across cultures is lacking. Using Hofstede's Cultural Rankings as a measure of national culture, we utilize meta-regression analysis to investigate the effects of culture on individuals' motivation to adapt to climate-driven floods. This research makes a unique contribution to the literature by providing some of the first empirical evidence on the interaction effects between culture and individual flooding adaptation motivation based on the data collected across a large sample of countries. The results provide strong statistical support for the importance of considering cultural differences when empirically assessing limits of individual adaptation worldwide.