Vol.:(0123456789) Natural Hazards https://doi.org/10.1007/s11069-021-04911-6 1 3 ORIGINAL PAPER Emotional distress related to hazards and earthquake risk perception Daniela Ionescu 1  · Claudia Iuliana Iacob 2  · Eugen Avram 2  · Iuliana Armaș 3 Received: 30 September 2020 / Accepted: 28 June 2021 © The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer Nature B.V. 2021 Abstract This paper aimed to investigate emotional distress related to hazards (EDH) considering appraisals and personal resources from cognitive appraisal theory in a sample of Bucha- rest inhabitants periodically exposed to earthquakes (EQ). The sample consisted of 336 respondents (M = 33.71 years old, SD = 13.71, 64.6% females). The hierarchical regres- sion model revealed that discomfort of living space, a personal resource, was the strongest predictor of EDH (β = .18, t(313) = 3.09, p < .01), closely followed by appraisals or risk perception variables: hazards anticipation (β = .17, t(316) = 2.11, p < .05) and negative EQ consequences (β = .13, t(316) = 2.28, p < .05). The overall model explained 17% of the vari- ance of EDH. This study shows that the cognitive appraisal theory can be successfully used to explain the EDH of citizens living in an earthquake-prone city. Also, it emphasizes that earthquake-related factors can be relevant when discussing EDH levels of people in cities experiencing recurrent earthquakes. Keywords Bucharest · Distress · Earthquake · Risk perception · Discomfort · Hazard anticipation 1 Introduction Living in urban areas is a life choice that comes with a series of implications for life sat- isfaction and multiple professional opportunities, but it also entails taking certain risks and subject to various stress factors (Willie et al. 2016; Galea and Vlahov 2005). Gen- erally, urban stress was studied from the perspective of trafc-related matters and urban Daniela Ionescu, Claudia Iuliana Iacob, Eugen Avram and Iuliana Armaș have an equal contribution to the manuscript. * Claudia Iuliana Iacob claudia.draganescu@unibuc.ro 1 Department of Sociology, National School of Political and Administrative Studies, Bucharest, Romania 2 Department of Psychology, University of Bucharest, Panduri Street, No. 90, Sector 5, Bucharest, Romania 3 Department of Geography, University of Bucharest, Bucharest, Romania