Novel approaches are needed to increase preparedness behaviours in populations with high disaster risk. Crucially, such approaches need to take into account the relationships that people have with place. We report a randomised controlled trial to test the effectiveness of an online place attachment mental visualisation task to increase preparedness behaviours. Findings from a pilot (Study 1) using pre and post-test measures showed mixed evidence for the influence of mental visualisation on place attachment. Using a pre-registered randomised controlled trial with a two-week follow-up in a community sample (Study 2), we expected that visualising one's house or neighbourhood would result in stronger intentions to prepare, and greater implementation of preparedness behaviours at a follow-up, when compared to visualising a neutral place. Findings showed no main effect of visualisation on survival, mitigation, or community preparedness behaviours. These studies broadly indicate that our online mental place visualisation task was not sufficient to influence preparedness behaviours. We discuss implications of these findings for the advancement of place attachment theory and behaviour-change techniques.

需要新的方法来增加高灾害风险人群的备灾行为。至关重要的是，这种方法需要考虑人们与地方之间的关系。我们报告了一项随机对照试验，以测试在线场所附件心理可视化任务增加准备行为的有效性。从飞行员（研究1）使用测试前和测试后的结果得出的证据表明，心理可视化对场所依恋有影响。使用预先注册的随机对照试验，并在社区样本中进行为期两周的随访（研究2），我们希望可视化一个人的房屋或邻里会带来更强的准备意愿，并能在随访时更好地实施准备行为-与可视化中性位置相比。调查结果显示，可视化对生存，缓解或社区防备行为没有主要影响。这些研究广泛地表明，我们的在线心理位置可视化任务不足以影响防备行为。我们讨论这些发现对地方依恋理论和行为改变技术的发展的意义。