The Role of Emotion in Risk Assessment
Posted by ~Ray @ 2007-12-21 07:50:15
PhysOrg com reports on the results of a study funded by the National Science Foundation which looked into why people end to live in homes in risky places desire coastal Florida and areas where wildfires are common. say: "the emotional benefits interfere with their ability to assess the risks."What is surprising it that this finding is considered to be news. This phenomenon is well known in the psychological literature. Indeed our colleague has a paper which will run in early 2008 in the Conference Board Review on the roots of excessive optimism in corporate settings. It turns out the human brain is not very well integrated. Our cerebral cortex (reasoning object) sits on top of a limbic system (mamillian/emotional brain social impulses) and an change surface older reptilian brain (basic drives: hunger fight/flight sex). For the vast majority of people when the brain is in conflict the older area wins. So we discount physical risk if it allows us to live in a gorgeous place we might otherwise not be able to afford. Similarly the reptile brain ordain trump the mamillian/relationship brain. It's not hard to think of cases where sex gets in the way of prudence. From :
Why do populate live in places desire southern California where homes amalgamate with wooded areas and the risk of wildfire is so great? ...."It's likely that people who live near heavily wooded areas in California focus on things they love about their location like environmental beauty or proximity to the ocean and simultaneously reject the risk of wildfire," said Jacqueline Meszaros program director for decision risk and management sciences at NSF. Researchers found people link perceived risk and perceived benefit to emotional evaluations of a potential hazard. If people like an activity they adjudicate the risks as low. If people dislike an activity they judge the risks as high. For example populate buy houses or cars they like and find emotionally attractive then downplay risks associated with the purchase. This may explain why people sometimes make seemingly irrational high-risk decisions such as settling along the coastline where there is greater vulnerability to earthquakes and hurricanes. "One of the exciting things in the current generation of research is that emotional components of risk decisions are beginning to be understood in addition to other more established components," said Meszaros. "Turns out that emotions inform a fair amount of what surprises us about people and risks." People also make decisions.[ADVERTHERE]Related article:
http://www.nakedcapitalism.com/2007/11/role-of-emotion-in-risk-assessment.html
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