Strategies for Risk Communication—Evolution, Evidence, and Experience

This volumes comes out of a symposium, sponsored by the Society for Risk Analysis and the National Science Foundation, which explored practical methods and robust theories of risk communication arising from recent research in risk perception, neuroscience, and the evolutionary social sciences. The symposium addressed how humans process and perceive uncertainty and risks. The purpose of the symposium was to synthesize the findings from these diverse fields to inform the development of practical strategies for risk communication.

NOTE: Annals volumes are available for sale as individual books or as a journal. For information on institutional journal subscriptions, please visit www.blackwellpublishing.com/nyas.

ACADEMY MEMBERS: Please contact the New York Academy of Sciences directly to place your order (www.nyas.org). Members of the New York Academy of Science receive full-text access to the Annals online and discounts on print volumes. Please visit http://www.nyas.org/MemberCenter/Join.aspx for more information about becoming a member

This volumes comes out of a symposium, sponsored by the Society for Risk Analysis and the National Science Foundation, which explored practical methods and robust theories of risk communication arising from recent research in risk perception, neuroscience, and the evolutionary social sciences. The symposium addressed how humans process and perceive uncertainty and risks. The purpose of the symposium was to synthesize the findings from these diverse fields to inform the development of practical strategies for risk communication.

Introduction: W. Troy Tucker and Scott Ferson.

1. Numeracy and the Perception and Communication of Risk: Ellen Peters.

2. Evolution, Risk, and Neural Representation: Karli K. Watson.

3. Linguistic Uncertainty in Qualitative Risk Analysis and How to Minimize It: Janet M. Carey and Mark A. Burgman.

4. Transparency in Risk Communication: Graphical and Analog Tools: Elke Kurz-Milcke, Gerd Gigerenzer, and Laura Martignon.

5. Visualizing Seismic Risk and Uncertainty: A Review of Related Research: Ann Bostrom, Luc Anselin, and Jeremy Farris.

6. The Neuronal Substrate of Risky Choice: An Insight into the Contributions of Neuroimaging to the Understanding of Theories on Decision-making under Risk: Verena Vorhold.

7. Multiple Systems in Decision-Making: Alan G. Sanfey and Luke J. Chang.

8. A Frequency/Consequence-based Technique for Visualizing and Communicating Uncertainty and Perception of Risk: David Slavin, W. Troy Tucker, and Scott Ferson.

9. Risk Communication and Risky Choice in Context: Ambiguity and Ambivalence Hypothesis: X. T. Wang.

10. Models and Methods in Delay Discounting: Aaron D. Tesch and Alan G. Sanfey.

11. Science, Precaution and the Politics of Technological Risk: Converging Implications in Evolutionary and Social Scientific Perspectives: Andy Stirling.

12. Evolved Altruism, Strong Reciprocity, and Perception of Risk: W. Troy Tucker and Scott Ferson.

13. Perceiving Others' Perceptions of Risk: Still a Task for Sisyphus: Adam M. Finkel.

Index of Contributors