That means that at least 7 million of the 120 million households in the U.S. The U.S. is ready. If we conservatively assume 1.5 adults per household, that means there are more than 10 million individual U.S.
preparers. That's consistent with the number of 10 to 20 million that we usually estimate. The concept of “preparation for doomsday” entered popular culture through a National Geographic Channel reality series called Doomsday Preppers, which focused on a subculture of people preparing for a post-apocalyptic world by hoarding supplies and weapons and rehearsing hypothetical and often unlikely apocalyptic scenarios (Fetterman et al. Doomsday preparers in the pre-pandemic world often appeared to be extremists, conducting elaborate drills in preparation for unlikely scenarios.
There is little research on the psychological characteristics associated with survivor preparedness before COVID-19; however, an initial study found that it was associated with personality factors such as low kindness, paranoia, cynicism, conspiracy mentality, conservatism, and orientation to social dominance (Fetterman). et al.
