The Communication of Risk: At the Crossroads of Science, Economics, and Communications

An overview of what risk is from a scientific (re: meteorological) perspective, economic perspective and communication perspective is presented. Specifically, the overlap of these three enterprises is defined. What this overlap means for cross-discipline investigators is discussed. The author also offers examples of what types of research should be generated from this overlap. Risk “attitude” is unique to the individual (weather information). Risk “perception” is an internal process of understanding by the individual related to his/her own biases and intellectual capacity. Decision-making processes are based upon the assessment of said risk. Where do forecasters switch from simply conveying weather information, to paternal behavior modification techniques (e.g., “Take Shelter”)? Situations where someone over/under-estimates said risk (from both sets of people; those that disseminate risk versus those that internalize risk) is related not only from the scientific perspective, but also to the economic and communicative standpoint.