Introduction and validation of the Natural Disasters Picture System (NDPS)

International audienceGiven the growing demand for studies dealing with natural disasters, the research fields ofemotion and social cognition require validated picture stimuli of natural hazards. Such materialis essential for studying perceptual processes and behaviors of exposed individuals, andit could find practical applications, such as the improvement of communication strategiesduring crises. We present the Natural Disasters Picture System (NDPS), a database ofpictures of natural hazards, with an emphasis on volcanic threats, and their impact on theenvironment and humans. We first describe in detail the picture selection and database creation.We then report the validation procedure. One hundred twenty participants rated thepictures on the basis of four dimensions: valence, arousal, dominance and certainty. Foreach picture, we ultimately determined the best-fitting emotion on the basis of its dimensionalpattern. The Hierarchical Ascendant Classification, which yielded 4 clusters subdividedinto 9 classes, indicated a highly consistent and distinctive classification of thepictures. Overall, 90% of the pictures elicited negative emotions (fear or sadness), and theother 10% induced neutral to positive emotions (e.g., aesthetic emotions). The NDPS offersa new tool for studying natural events and disasters in the field of affective and cognitive sciences,which will benefit from scientific research and its practical applications. The NDPS isunrestrictedly accessible for researchers