Evolutionary Characteristics and Influencing Factors of Public Response Behaviors in Sudden Natural Disasters: Evidence from Typhoon Ragasa in China

Sudden natural disasters pose growing challenges to emergency governance. Understanding public response behaviors is critical to effective risk communication. Social media comments provide valuable data for examining such behaviors during disasters. To investigate the characteristics and influencing factors of public response behaviors, this study used Typhoon Ragasa in 2025 as a case and analyzed 8365 valid comment samples from the Douyin platform. Qualitative coding and text analysis revealed public response behaviors varied across disaster phases. Information behavior predominated during the warning phase, as people relied on information to assess risks and adjust daily routines. Emotional behavior increased during the impact phase, with regional empathy and cross-verification of information. During the recovery phase, responses shifted toward restorative emotional expression and reflection on disaster governance. Action and supportive behaviors remained relatively infrequent. Logistic regression results further showed that the cognitive risk perception index and reply-based conversational engagement were positively associated with information behavior and negatively associated with emotional behavior. Neither was significantly associated with action or supportive behavior. Like-based social endorsement was positively associated with information behavior during the warning phase and emotional behavior during the impact phase. Based on these findings, several recommendations are proposed.