Catastrophic wildfire is an increasingly familiar phenomenon on multiple continents. In the United States, concerns about uncontrolled, destructive wildfire have prompted some major insurance carriers to cease writing new policies or to non-renew existing policies. These trends affect not only policyholders, but also, vulnerable communities that already face multiple obstacles to securing property or renters insurance. This study reviews the social and behavioral sciences literatures on wildfire risk in the United States and insurance protection by homeowners. Three categories of research emerge from the review, namely, homeowner as rational actor, wildfire governance and risk management, and wildfire and social equity. There is abundant scholarship on determinants of homeowner decisions to manage wildfire risk by self-protecting or by purchasing insurance, but comparatively little research on the policy implications of shrinking markets for insurance. Policy research on the needs of underinsured and uninsured populations is also relatively undeveloped. Overlaying Lasswell’s social process framework on the three dominant research themes, we find not only divergent research questions, models, and methods, but also, important differences in which stakeholders and stakeholder values are considered. There are opportunities for the different literatures to learn from one another, but also, to sharpen their focus on insurance as a scarce and uncertain resource amid climate change and as property development continues to expand in wildfire-prone areas.

灾难性野火在多个大陆上是一种越来越常见的现象。在美国，对失控、破坏性野火的担忧促使一些主要保险公司停止承保新保单或不再续签现有保单。这些趋势不仅影响保单持有人，还影响脆弱社区，他们在获得财产或租户保险方面已经面临多重障碍。本研究回顾了有关美国野火风险和房主保险保护的社会和行为科学文献。审查中出现了三类研究，即房主作为理性行为者、野火治理和风险管理以及野火和社会公平。关于房主决定通过自我保护或购买保险来管理野火风险的决定因素有大量的学术研究，但对保险市场萎缩的政策影响的研究相对较少。关于保险不足和未保险人群需求的政策研究也相对不发达。将拉斯韦尔的社会过程框架叠加到三个主导研究主题上，我们不仅发现不同的研究问题、模型和方法，而且在考虑利益相关者和利益相关者价值观方面也存在重要差异。不同的文献有机会相互学习，同时也可以加强对保险的关注，因为在气候变化以及山火多发地区房地产开发不断扩大的情况下，保险是一种稀缺且不确定的资源。