Trust and Awareness, Not Just Law, Drive Earthquake Insurance in Türkiye

Türkiye sits in one of the world's most seismically active regions, yet a new qualitative study reports that earthquake insurance uptake there remains constrained, and that the barriers are as much social as they are regulatory. The research, published as an open-access article in Humanities and Social Sciences Communications, examines how earthquake-focused insurance policies are supplied and demanded in a high-risk country where, according to the authors, insufficient public awareness and participation in the insurance system create significant challenges. The study's stated motivation is to understand the current state of the insurance framework designed to mitigate the devastating impacts of earthquakes and to identify areas for improvement.

The study took a qualitative approach, built around in-depth interviews with two key stakeholder groups in the insurance sector: insurance agents on the supply side and households representing policyholders on the demand side. The authors state that this dual perspective allowed a comprehensive analysis of the economic, social, cultural, and structural factors influencing both the supply and demand for earthquake insurance from multiple angles. Because the design is qualitative and interview-based, the findings describe perceived influences and stakeholder experiences rather than statistically measured causal effects, and the conclusions are grounded in the Turkish context.

The central finding is that, especially in developing countries, increasing the prevalence of disaster insurance depends not only on legal regulations but also critically relies on raising social awareness and building trust within communities. Within that framing, the result points to social awareness and community trust as elements the interviewed stakeholders perceived as critical alongside the legal architecture of the insurance system. Based on these insights, the paper offers concrete recommendations aimed at policymakers and industry representatives to strengthen the insurance system.

The abstract does not detail each recommendation, so the specific measures proposed cannot be enumerated from the material available; what the study states is that such recommendations follow from the identified supply-and-demand dynamics. The authors also position the results as a guiding reference for other countries facing similar risk profiles, suggesting that the dynamics observed in Türkiye may be relevant wherever seismic hazard is high and insurance participation is limited. This is a qualitative interview study of insurance agents and households in one country, published in a version the journal notes is shared early to provide faster access to peer-reviewed, accepted research and is subject to further edits before the final Version of Record.

What it does establish, within that scope, is a documented gap between a well-understood physical hazard and the social machinery of risk transfer, and an argument from the interviewed stakeholders that closing that gap requires raising awareness and building trust within communities as deliberately as it requires legal regulation.

Subject of Research: Insurance, risk, and society: understanding earthquake insurance uptake in a high-risk country

Article Title: Insurance, risk, and society: understanding earthquake insurance uptake in a high-risk country

Article References: Cutcu, I., Celik, M., Kirkbesoglu, E., Keser, A., Akpinar, O., Ozsaatci, F. B., Ozguner, M., Eren, M. V., Sahin, A., Cayir, B., Oztekin, B., Sonmez, S. S., & Delibas, C. N. (2026). Insurance, risk, and society: understanding earthquake insurance uptake in a high-risk country. Humanities and Social Sciences Communications. https://doi.org/10.1057/s41599-026-09217-1

Image Credits: AI Generated

DOI: 10.1057/s41599-026-09217-1

Keywords: Insurance, risk, society, understanding, earthquake, uptake, high-risk, country, scientific research