Who Identifies as a “Prepper” in the United States?

Abstract

ABSTRACT Objective Americans increasingly face hazards that threaten health, safety, and property, and personal emergency preparedness is on the rise. Yet little research examines who identifies as a prepper. Existing studies typically define prepping in terms of stockpiling resources or belief in collapse scenarios rather than as a social identity, portraying preppers as conspiratorial, conservative, and populist while reaching mixed conclusions about the roles of disaster risk and environmentalism. Methods We address these gaps by measuring prepper identity directly and examining its relationship with conspiracism, political identities, objective community‐level risk, and environmentalism using an original national survey in which respondents indicated their agreement with the statement, “I am a prepper.” Results Prepper identity is associated with conspiracism, ideological conservatism, and environmentalism, but not with objective community‐level risk. Conclusions Prepper identity reflects distinct political and psychological orientations and is adopted by a broad cross‐section of Americans, underscoring the need to distinguish prepper identity from preparedness behavior.