Group Project Proposal - House choice attitude change after the big earthquake in Turkey

Introduction:
We have chosen to study the house choice attitude of people after the big earthquake that
happened in Turkey. The reason why we chose to study this attitude is that after the earthquake
that happened on February the 5th 2023, many people lost their homes, families, and loved ones.
The biggest reason for this big catastrophe was because of the contractors and the houses that
they built without the proper procedures which caused many families and the whole country big
harm and heartache. Another reason we believe it is important to study this attitude is to see if
people are taking the necessary precautions for another potential earthquake happening in the
future. This attitude should change because many lives were ruined because people would not
give the necessary importance to this attitude before while searching for homes if the buildings
are resistant to earthquakes or not. The attitude that we are planning to change is very important
and widespread, especially in the country that we are living in which is Turkey.
Past literature on this topic shows that knowledge of earthquakes increased, and earthquake
attitudes also increased at a significant level among disaster relief staff (Öcal, 2011), which
shows that people going through that big of a trauma got more mindful about it and their
attitudes shifted as well. Another research finding showed that the level of knowledge regarding
earthquakes and preparedness for them was mostly changing according to people’s educational
and socio-economic levels. Besides, the location of their home was also a strong influence on
individuals’ average earthquake knowledge and risk perception with regard to earthquakes
(Tekeli, 2011).

Methods:
We are planning to conduct the study by making the participants fill out a questionnaire.
- Experimental Setup:
The questionnaire will be available and filled out by the participants via Google Forms.
- Participants:
We expect at least 50 participants to conduct our study.
- Hypotheses:
H0: House choice attitude is not affected by the earthquake.
H1: House choice attitude is highly affected by the earthquake.
 - Independent variable: Earthquake
- Dependent variable: House choice attitude
- Data Analysis:
We are planning to analyze the data by doing first the descriptive statistics, the reliability
tests, and lastly a regression analysis.

Results:
Regarding the big earthquake that happened in Turkey, we expect to find that house choice
attitudes would be highly impacted, and people would be more mindful of earthquake protection
while choosing a house.

Discussion:
Some possible limitations that we could have are: conducting the study only in Turkey, so it will
not be generalizable to other countries. The economic and educational levels of the sample might
be a limitation because the study will be conducted majorly by the people around.
The way we would apply our results if they were found to be significant is by concluding that
people were able to learn from past mistakes and got more knowledge about earthquake
protection and what is important to be looked after while choosing a house to live in.

Experimentally manipulate elements. Choose from class materials.

References

Öcal, A. (n.d.). The relationship between earthquake knowledge and earthquake attitudes
... Retrieved April 10, 2023, from
https://www.researchgate.net/publication/233988297_The_Relationship_between_Earthquake_K
nowledge_and_Earthquake_Attitudes_of_Disaster_Relief_Staffs

Tekeli-Yeşil, S., Dedeoğlu, N., Braun-Fahrlaender, C. et al. Earthquake awareness and

perception of risk among the residents of Istanbul. Nat Hazards 59, 427–446 (2011).

https://doi.org/10.1007/s11069-011-9764-1