THE OSTRICH PARADOX: Why We Underprepare for Disasters

New Consciousness Review

Aired Wednesday, 8 February 2017, 2:00 PM ET
Today’s Star is Robert Meyer
Why are we humans so poor at dealing with disastrous risks when met with a sudden emergency, and what can we do about it?
About the Guest: Robert Meyer
Robert Meyer is the Frederick H. Ecker/MetLife Insurance Professor of Marketing and co-director of the Wharton Risk Management and Decision Processes Center at The Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania. His work has appeared in a wide variety of professional journals and books, including the Journal of Consumer Research; Journal of Marketing Research; Journal of Risk and Uncertainty; Marketing Science; Management Science; and Risk Analysis.
He is the co-author with Howard Kunreuther of The Ostrich Paradox, which presents the six cognitive biases that lead individuals, communities, and institutions to make grave errors when met with a sudden emergency – whether a natural disaster like a hurricane or earthquake, or a catastrophe such as a plane crash or a building fire. They present in the book a Behavioral Risk Audit, a systematic approach for improving our risk preparedness by designing strategies that anticipate our biases, and could help us design more effective strategies and enact policies that work with, rather than against, our natural psychologies.
Website: http://wdp.wharton.upenn.edu/book/ostrich-paradox/