Relaying support in disaster-affected areas: the social implications of a 'pay-it-forward' network.

When a disaster strikes a country, a temporary so-called post-disaster utopia emerges in which local residents help each other and outsiders support survivors and victims. However, this utopia does not last. Survivors are likely to have no chance to pay people back for the help they have received and thus return to their daily lives with a sense of debt. After the Great East Japan Earthquake the author motivated survivors of other disasters to help survivors in the Tohoku region in eastern Japan in return for the support they had received in the past. Two findings are revealed: firstly, this pay-it-forward support among disaster-affected areas allows for intermittent rebuilding of the post-disaster utopia. Secondly, a theoretical examination of the network theory also suggests that the pay-it-forward network is likely to expand and cover the whole of society very quickly. The psychological and sociological implications of these findings are also discussed.