ANGER AND BLAME IN 3 TECHNOLOGICAL DISASTERS

This article describes an investigation into the long-term reactions o f disaster survivors, including the extent of their psychological dist ress and the ways in which they apportion blame for what happened to t hem. Three technological disasters were chosen to cover a range of tra umatic experiences and degrees of possible blame. The main results wer e the identification of continuing high levels of distress, intermingl ed with high levels of specifically targeted anger, and blame which wa s relatively sharply focused on those named publicly as having caused the accidents. There were also strong fears of other disasters happeni ng again and a widespread perception that justice was not done.