Preppers, also known as “apocalypse” or “doomsday” preppers depending on their specific beliefs, anticipate a calamity or emergency in the near future and take steps to protect themselves and their families. Preppers stockpile resources, learn skills necessary for survival in case of an emergency or disruptions to their everyday lives, and create places to stay safe in the event of social and infrastructural collapse. Preppers are a large subculture, particularly in the United States.
Prepping is distinct from but related to survivalism, the act of learning skills that can be useful in any situation, in that survivalism is more influenced by ideology and making meaning around the apocalypse than prepping is, which focuses more on disaster readiness (Huddleston 2016). Scholars also conceptualize survivalism as more individualistic, skill-focused, and minimalistic than prepping, which often relates just as much to acquiring supplies as learning skills. Some preppers may not consider themselves survivalists, due to the conservative and individualistic connotation around that term, and some survivalists may not identify as preppers. However, the two are practically difficult to unravel from one another given the overlaps between them, and much of the research on one group is relevant to the other. This page primarily focuses on the group conceptualized as preppers, with some added information about survivalists.
Prepping emerged in the 1950s due to the fear of nuclear war and has evolved through stages of American fear of social collapse, including stages of the Cold War (particularly the Cuban missile crisis), 9/11, and COVID-19 (Garrett 2021). During the doom boom, with perceived high risk of nuclear war with the Soviet Union, the United States government did not build public nuclear bunkers for its citizens, indicating that residents’ protection was up to them (Garrett 2021). Companies profited, making survival supplies, and Americans begun to prepare for themselves, knowing that they will not have governmental backup. The American individualistic attitude also influences preppers to have values of self-reliance.
A fallout shelter from the 1950s. The government encouraged families to construct shelters like this during the Cold War.
The changing political environment also influences prepper activities, resulting in membership increases when Barack Obama was president and seen as a threat to their guns. Additionally, ineffective disaster response, such as the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, caused doubt in some groups that the government would help successfully in an emergency. FEMA is particularly dismissed in prepper circles, with them coining an alternative meaning for FEMA as “Foolishly Expecting Meaningful Aid”. Most recently, COVID-19 also acted as vindication to some preppers that social collapse, as well as supply chain issues, are likely, and that government help may be slow, ineffective, or difficult to access.
Various governmental messages often encourage some degree of preparing for weather or other emergencies. The Cold War-era government even encouraged Americans to create home bunkers and stash supplies, and cultivated an image of home fallout shelters as parts of everyday life (Masco 2009). Since then, iterations of the United States government have worked to project images of a perpetual state of crisis where the United States is threatened by some foreign other, such as with the War on Terror. Bunker mentality, rather than disappearing after the threat of nuclear war receded, has integrated into much of society as Americans continue an obsession with national security (Masco 2009). The governmental messaging reveals underlying beliefs and priorities, namely, that it is easier to deal with an apocalypse than to prevent it. Partially because of this influence, many preppers anticipate a human-made crisis, potentially stoked by governmental influence and dread of the intangible uncertain.
This PSA, from New York City’s emergency management department, advises city residents to stay inside during a nuclear attack. Videos and images like this are some of what has created a culture around prepping.
Other influences on preppers may relate to media’s cultivation of fear. American media especially presents visions of the apocalypse and fearmongers on both sides of the isle about social collapse, leading to a culture deeply fixated on the possibility of an apocalypse. Many preppers identify the media and governmental messaging as reasons to prep and prepare specifically for calamities that are the current news topics of the time (Mills 2019).
Religion also plays a role, with members of the Church of Latter-Day Saints encouraged to keep a supply of food. Although survivalism has boomed worldwide, it is most common among residents of the United States (Mills 2019), with participant estimates in the millions (Brooks 2024). The number of participants, while difficult to measure because of the level of secrecy and solitude some preppers have, appears to have gone up in the 2010s, based on increases in the industry’s revenue (Mills 2019).
This brief documentary shows preppers with a range of beliefs. Notice the discussion of how Americans do not expect their government to provide bunkers for them and rely on private bunkers, a marker of the culture’s individualism.
Different apocalypse preppers believe in a variety of emergencies. Often members of this subculture believe that a specific cataclysm will occur, and the rest prepare more generally, since many disasters may lead to the same result. Some potential events are natural (tsunamis, supervolcanoes, solar flares, temperature changes, earthquakes), some are related to other humans (a nuclear meltdown, terrorism, a pandemic, or a power grid collapse), and some do not seem to have much basis in reality (Planet X, or a magnetic pole shift that causes drastic changes in Earth’s tectonics). Whatever the root cause, many of these SHTF scenarios lead to the same outcome, which is eventually martial law, economic collapse, anarchy, and eventually the starvation of the remaining population who did not prepare and even some who did prepare (Garrett 2021).
Some preppers focus more on practical activities than unlikely polar shifts or comets. Ethnographic fieldwork has even suggested that the majority of preppers might fall into this category, with preparation mostly focused on the ability to survive for a few months or years after an emergency until society stabilizes again (Mills 2019). Many preppers, particularly in urban areas, prepare for more probable events like a power grid outage, weather emergency typical to the area, or a breakdown in the supply chain like happened with COVID-19. For these preppers, their intention is not to survive indefinitely in an apocalyptic scenario, but to have enough resources to get through a hurricane or other emergency without relying on prompt government aid (Bounds 2021). These preppers are dissimilar to prepper stereotypes that hoard ammunition and focus on individualistic self-defense.
Even preppers who specifically anticipate the apocalypse vary. Many different apocalypses are possible, as are as many responses. Some preppers, particularly in rural areas, create a bunker in or near their residence. Others, who live in the city, purchase land far enough away from urban areas that they believe that they would be able to escape to their bunker and get away. The wealthiest are able to purchase space in luxury bunkers, where they would evacuate in case of emergency. Some also prepare to ride out the apocalypse alone or with family, while others form communities and groups of people, often trying to create balanced units with various skills that would be useful in a survival situation (Krulos 2019).
Preppers ensure that they have an emergency stash of resources, ranging from materials to survive for a few days until help arrives to stockpiles of food and ammunition that can last for years. They will often create “bug-out bags”, a bag of essential survival items to grab in an emergency. Some even aim for complete self-sufficiency and lack of reliance on others or social infrastructure. These preppers often focus on skills for self-sufficiency and create homesteads. Preppers may conduct emergency drills with their family or a different group who they plan to bug out with. They also learn emergency skills for first aid, creating a shelter, purifying water, and other survival essentials. Some also focus on physical fitness, determined to stay in good enough health to hike to safety if necessary. Although the nature of many of these tasks is individualistic, preppers may discuss their plans in person or online with others.
These are the contents of a bug out bag, personalized to the person who created the bag. Some items to note are cash, an inhaler, goggles (to prevent eye irritation in case of a gas/air event), and a small first aid kit.
Certain preppers also may have some fear of others and have an attitude that during a crisis, people who were unprepared will attempt to forcibly take resources from those who were ready. Some report a belief of “72 hours to animal”, where within 72 hours after a crisis or governmental failure, people will lose civilized behavior and start competing for resources in any way that they can. Among white preppers especially, this may relate to racialized fears, and some preppers report anticipating roving bands going around and attempting to steal the resources that the preppers have spent so long accumulating. These preppers often cite sensationalized media images of looting after significant weather events as a reason to fear marauding hordes, usually of ethnic minorities (Foster 2016). With this perception of urban areas and racialized groups as dangerous, apocalypse preppers believe that urban areas will be unsafe during an apocalypse and plan to get out of dodge (Krulos 2019). This mirrors larger social patterns of seeking security from others through gated communities (Foster 2016), policing, border control, and airport screenings, which often exist more for the aesthetics and image of safety (Ghertner et al. 2020).
The stereotype of preppers is white, male, and paranoid. This is the type of prepper often shown in media like National Geographic’s Doomsday Preppers and other media focusing on apocalyptic readiness – “apocotainment” (Foster 2016). These media portray masculinity as aggression and show prepping as a method for men to represent them as both family patriarchs and drill sergeants (Foster 2016). There is some truth to stereotypes of preppers, at least those who academics have studied, as having conservative, paranoid, and god-fearing attitudes (Fetterman et al. 2019). Other conceptualizations of apocalypse prepping argue that it anticipates scenarios where traditional masculinity will be necessary for survival, to push back against the crisis of masculinity where traditionally manly skills are no longer as respected in contributing the survival of the family group (Kelly 2016). This may be one way that survivalists attempt to create new narratives of culture and make meaning around upcoming calamities (Mitchell 2002).
This video from the series Doomsday Preppers shows stereotypical conceptions of preppers.
Prepping has historically had a conservative slant, with some of the potential doomsday scenarios relating to Biblical events (Garrett 2020). This certainly has some basis in reality, with many preppers subscribing to right wing ideology. More conservative news networks often promote apocalypse prepping and sell related products (Kelly 2016). Some preppers are religious and believe that a period of tribulation will occur before Jesus’ return, and many Mormons are preppers, as encouraged by the LDS church (Garrett 2020). Other conservative preppers fear foreign terror attacks or Democrats attempting to take their guns. People who prepare specifically for the apocalypse tend to have a distrust of the government and a belief in individually protecting oneself, often owning guns and fearing that in the event of a social collapse, others will attempt to take their resources rather than attempting to cooperate. Some of them, especially on the conservative side, often also have a perception of cities as unsafe and violent, believing that rural locations away from others are the best place to be in a crisis so that others cannot attempt to harm them, and believe that others are more likely to harm than help them in an emergency (Foster 2016). Because of this, survivalist and prepper networks tend to be decentralized and diffuse (Mitchell 2002).
Members of the apocalypse prepping subculture overlap with some conservative and anti-government groups. Members of survivalist subcultures may also be involved with right-wing “self-defense” militias (Garrett 2020). Preppers may also overlap with believers in conspiracy theories (Kabel & Chmidling 2014), particularly regarding things that may cause the “shit to hit the fan”, as well as those who distrust government programs like vaccines.
However, more liberals have begun prepping, influenced by different fears than conservative preppers have, such as climate change (Gittinger 2023). Some liberals also fear civil collapse in recent years, following the Capitol riots of 2021 and increasing political polarization. Liberal fears often relate more to climate change, or even a perceived higher risk of war during Donald Trump’s presidency. Gun sales increased during Barack Obama’s presidency, but bunker sales increased during Donald Trump’s (Krulos 2019). Although most preppers on both sides of the aisle are white (Gittinger 2023), the subculture has broadened to a larger range of political and ethnic groups (Brooks 2024).
Additionally, urban preppers, often ethnic minorities, reported becoming preppers in response to Katrina or other disasters where they realized that the government may not help them specifically (Bounds 2021). As Bounds describes, urban preppers do not believe that the government is coming for them to take their guns or rights. Urban preppers are more fearful of the opposite: in an emergency situation, the government is not coming for them, and they will be on their own.
We are not crazy people. People need to understand that we are not preparing for doomsday and the end of the world. We are prepping for tomorrow. Tomorrow.
A few things to note from this video: Jason describes focusing only on scenarios that are possible and have happened before. Also, note that the legacy of 9/11 impacts New Yorkers, particularly Jason, as a firefighter.
Some preppers meet in person for conventions, meetings, and skill trainings, where they can learn skills and purchase items for prepping. Others are more online, focusing on forums and discussion boards, which are fairly anonymous. The virtual nature of online prepper communities allows them to circulate resources, tips, and information about potential disasters across geographic areas. Due to some preppers’ distrustful and individualistic beliefs, some may not be active or accessible in broader prepper communities at all and may focus more on preparing individually.
Many commodities have catered to preppers. Manufacturers produce “bug out bags”, which contain the essentials to survive in an emergency, such as first aid kits and water. This act of selling perceived safety, as well as selling subcultural participation, ties into themes of subcultural commodification. Additionally, some companies construct bunkers, ranging in cost and luxury level, and allow preppers to pay to reserve a space for when the apocalypse happens. Some of these bunkers rely on luxury to sell them and the promise of having access to resources like an indoor pool.
This video shows the expensive end of prepping, touring a former Cold War bunker that was later converted to luxury apartments.
One common shared meaning preppers discuss is “WTSHTF”, or “when the shit hits the fan”. Preppers use it to describe the moment they believe is upcoming when social collapse occurs. They also talk about “bug-out locations”, which refer to places preppers own where they can be safe in the event of some kind of collapse. These places are often rural, may be reinforced against environmental or human hazards, and contain a stash of resources.
Some other relevant themes to this subculture are resistance to governmental control. Many preppers take some degree of anti-government or government-critical stance, often believing at the very least that the government will not protect them in the case of a disaster. Preppers who believe in conspiracy theories also may distrust the government’s orders, particularly around vaccines and safety measures. Bounds (2021) also describes that preppers view self-reliance as a form of resistance to conformity and as an expansion of personal identity.
Preppers construct boundaries both between members of the subculture and people outside of the culture. Although prepping exists on the same spectrum as more common disaster preparedness efforts, many people who engage in some levels of disaster preparedness do not consider themselves preppers, nor would preppers consider them as part of the group. Especially in areas that are at high risk for natural disasters like hurricanes or tornados, taking actions like maintaining small amounts of emergency food and water rations, securing heavy objects in one’s home to prevent them from causing injuries during an earthquake, or learning evacuation routes to take in a flood may be more typical than subcultural, and are recommended by the government. Although the distinction may not always be clear, the main differences between the majority of people who participate in emergency planning and preppers is the level of preparedness, how significant it is to the participant’s identity, and how likely the participant believes these measures will be necessary.
Additionally, some preppers make efforts to manage stigma through distancing themselves from what they perceive to be the more fringe, extreme, or even dangerous groups. Particularly, members of the more liberal or urban groups of preppers claim differences between themselves and the stereotypical apocalypse prepper. These differences may be based on the specific disaster the prepper prepares for (such as a resident of New Orleans preparing for a hurricane comparing herself to a conservative prepper who prepares for Planet X to shift Earth’s magnetic poles and destroy Earth’s crust), or on the level of participation, such as a prepper distinguishing oneself from the preppers who spend years creating bunkers and stockpiling resources.
Since prepping appears to be expanding in recent years, it may continue to expand, particularly with worsening disasters related to climate change and a pandemic in recent memory. As the prepping community diversifies and prepares for a variety of issues, the next disaster is likely to vindicate some preppers. With many Americans prepping and many more taking at least some steps for disaster preparedness, as well as continuous news reports of disasters, prepping is likely to continue. The subculture may keep growing, and may even become more integrated into American society until every household who can afford it has a fallout shelter. Preppers reflect existing patterns of social dread, and the United States certainly has enough dread to go around.
| BOB (bug-out bag) | a prepper’s bag packed with survival essentials, intended to be brought with a prepper in an emergency |
| BOL (bug-out location) | a prepper’s intended location to get to during an emergency |
| Bugging out | leaving to a safer, often rural, location |
| Bugging in | securing oneself in one’s home with resources |
| FEMA | foolishly expecting meaningful aid; the Federal Emergency Management Agency |
| GOOD (get out of dodge) | leaving the city for a more rural area in an emergency; bugging out |
| MRE (meal ready to eat) | prepackaged food that does not require preparation. Often used by the military. |
| TEOTWAWKI | the end of the world as we know it; the apocalypse or cataclysm resulting in social collapse |
| WROL (without rule of law) | the world after anarchy and governmental failure |
| YOYO (you’re on your own) | scenarios where the government is unable or unwilling to provide aid |
| 72 hours to animal | the idea that within 72 hours after a cataclysmic event, people will lose civilized behavior and start competing violently for resources |
This book discusses the modern preppers of New York City and is useful in its analysis of what events these subculturists prepare for and why, discussing the history of New York and its experience of various disasters (most notably, 9/11), and the complexity and diversity of prepper subcultures.
These are uncensored forums, stores, and websites by/for preppers with a variety of opinions and beliefs; read at your own risk.
This is the website of a company that sells space in bunkers. Themes of commodification of prepping may be relevant here. Some additional content to explore is the list of threats at the bottom of many pages.
https://www.survivalistboards.com/
This website has forums for preppers and survivalists to discuss prepping plans, as well as current happenings that may indicate an upcoming emergency.
https://www.reddit.com/r/realWorldPrepping/
This subreddit discusses what to do in likely emergencies and places a strong emphasis on banning conspiracy theories and doomerism/extreme pessimism.
US ‘prepper’ culture diversifies amid fear of disaster and political unrest
March 2024. This article addresses the changes in prepping demographics.
They Prepared for the Worst. Now, Everyone’s a Prepper.
March 2020. This article describes preppers’ responses to the COVID-19 pandemic.
A Survivalist Filled His Massive Basement with Food – Then Decided Puerto Ricans Needed it More
October 2017. This news story describes a prepper who sent his prepping resources to Puerto Rico after meeting a couple whose family had been affected by Hurricane Maria.
This page was created in Spring of 2024 and is up to date until then. I have covered contemporary preppers and recent research to the best of my ability, but this page may not reflect news updates or research beyond this year.
Professors Ross Haenfler and Owen Kohl helped with the research for this project. Tierney Stielberg and Livia Freitas assisted with the webpage creation.
Bounds, Anna M. 2021. Bracing for the Apocalypse: An Ethnographic Study of New
York’s ‘Prepper’ Subculture. London, England: Routledge.
Brooks, Brad. 2024. “US ‘prepper’ culture diversifies amid fear of disaster and political unrest.” Reuters, March 9. https://www.reuters.com/world/us/prepping-disaster-diversifies-more-americans-lose-trust-2024-03-09/
Fetterman, Adam K., Bastiaan T. Rutjens, Florian Landkammer, and Benjamin M. Wilkowski. 2019. “On Post–Apocalyptic and Doomsday Prepping Beliefs: A New Measure, Its Correlates, and the Motivation to Prep.” European Journal of Personality 33(4):506–25. doi: 10.1002/per.2216.
Foster, Gwendolyn Audrey. 2014. Hoarders, Doomsday Preppers, and the Culture of Apocalypse. Basingstoke, England: Palgrave Pivot.
Foster, Gwendolyn Audrey. 2016. “Consuming the Apocalypse, Marketing Bunker Materiality.” Text and Performance Quarterly 36:95-114. doi: 10.1080/10462937.2016.1158415
Garrett, Bradley. 2020. Bunker: What It Takes to Survive the Apocalypse. Harlow, England: Penguin Books.
Garrett, Bradley. 2021. “Doomsday Preppers and the Architecture of Dread.” Geoforum; Journal of Physical, Human, and Regional Geosciences 127:401–11. doi: 10.1016/j.geoforum.2020.03.014.
Ghertner, D. Asher., Hudson McFann, and Daniel M. Goldstein. 2020. “Introduction: Security Aesthetics of and beyond the Biopolitical.” 1-32 in Futureproof: Security Aesthetics and the Management of Life, edited by D.A. Ghertner, H. McFann, and D. M. Goldstein. Durham, NC: Duke University Press. doi: 10.2307/j.ctv11315nw.4.
Gittinger, Juli. 2023. “Liberal Prepping as Apocalyptic Eco-Religion.” Journal of Religion and Popular Culture 35(1):1–20. doi: 10.3138/jrpc.2020-0026.
Huddleston, Chad. 2016. “’Prepper” as Resilient Citizen: What Preppers Can Teach Us about Surviving Disasters.” 239-237 in Responses to Diasasters and Climate Change: Understanding Vulnerability and Fostering Resilience, edited by M. Companion and M. S. Chaiken. Boca Raton, FL: CRC Press.
Kabel, Allison, and Catherine Chmidling. 2014. “Disaster Prepper: Health, Identity, and American Survivalist Culture.” Human Organization 73(3):258–66. doi: 10.17730/humo.73.3.l34252tg03428527.
Kelly, Casey R. 2016. “The man-pocalypse: Doomsday Preppers and the rituals of apocalyptic manhood”. Text and Performance Quarterly 36(203), 95-114. doi: 10.1080/10462937.2016.1158415
Krulos, Tea. 2019. Apocalypse Any Day Now: Deep Underground with America’s Doomsday Preppers. Chicago, IL: Chicago Review Press.
Masco, Joseph. 2009. “Life Underground: Building the Bunker Society”. Anthropology Now 1(2);13-29. http://www.jstor.org/stable/41203538
Masco, Joseph. 2020. The Future of Fallout, and Other Episodes in Radioactive World-Making. Durham, NC: Duke University Press. doi: 10.1215/9781478012665
Mills, Michael F. 2019. “Preparing for the unknown… unknowns: ‘doomsday’ prepping and disaster risk anxiety in the United States.” Journal of Risk Research 22(10); 1267-1279. doi: 10.1080/13669877.2018.1466825
Mitchell, Richard G., Jr. 2002. Dancing at Armageddon: Survivalism and Chaos in Modern Times. London, England: The University of Chicago Press.
Page Citation: Wood, Jules. 2024. “Preppers.” Subcultures and Sociology. Retrieved [date viewed]. (https://haenfler.sites.grinnell.edu/preppers/)