Korean study finds extent of drought areas shapes public response

How do people's attention and actions change when a drought affects the whole country compared to when it is concentrated in one region? A research team led by Professor Jong-Hoon Kam from the Department of Environmental Engineering at POSTECH (Pohang University of Science and Technology) analyzed news reports, social media posts, and internet search data using artificial intelligence (AI) during the 2022–2023 drought period. The team found that public views of disasters change depending on the size of the problem and its distance from people. The study was recently published online in the journal Humanities and Social Sciences Communications.