January, 2009

Risk Communication, Resilience, and the Wolf We Nurture

by William Burns
The Conversation
January 22nd, 2009

President Obama in his inaugural address squarely acknowledges that our country is facing significant challenges at home and abroad. These challenges, whether they are from the threat of terrorism or the current financial crisis, have brought hardships to many people from all walks of life. We have for a time been knocked down. Even so, [...]

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Getting to the Specifics

by John Mueller
The Conversation
January 21st, 2009

It might be good to request some specifics. I very much agree with William Burns that for Americans “the probability of being harmed” by terrorists is “extraordinarily small,” that “we need solid risk communication” about it, and that effective communication “should foster resilience and not fear.” The question is, what messages does the research on [...]

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Commentary on Terrorism and Risk Communication by Timothy Sellnow

Editors’ Note: From time to time, we receive particularly well-considered expert commentary on an issue of Cato Unbound. This month we received two such commentaries, and we are pleased to run the second of them today. It comes from Timothy Sellnow, a professor of risk and crisis communication at the University of Kentucky who has [...]

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Risk Communication and the Dynamics of Public Response

by William Burns
The Conversation
January 16th, 2009

Camille Pecastaing offers a number of useful insights in response to my essay and Bernard Finel’s and John Mueller’s comments. He begins by pointing out that what I call fear in my essay is really anxiety. This is a good point, because fear is more visceral but anxiety endures well past the traumatic events. Anxiety [...]

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The Practicality of Instructing about Terrorism

by Camille Pecastaing
The Conversation
January 16th, 2009

While it is easy to agree on the benefits to better educating citizens about risks from terrorism, there are many paths to enlightenment, some more practical than others. The task would not just be about preparing the people most likely to be exposed to an emergency, namely those in the largest metropolitan areas, but about [...]

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Commentary on Terrorism and Risk Communication by Howard Kunreuther

Editors’ Note: From time to time, we receive particularly well-considered expert commentary on an issue of Cato Unbound. This month we received two such commentaries, and we are pleased to run the first of them today. It comes from Howard Kunreuther, the Cecilia Yen Koo Professor of Decision Sciences and Public Policy at the Wharton [...]

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Encouraging a Resilient Public

by Bernard Finel
The Conversation
January 14th, 2009

On most issues, I think the gap between my perspective and Dr. Burns’ is quite small. I don’t think that policy success directly translates into changes in public perceptions. And I agree with his conclusion, “Take-away lesson: To be effective, reducing risk must be accompanied by identifying gaps in public understanding.” Where I am more [...]

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Reducing Actual Threat Doesn’t Translate Into Decreased Perceptions of Risk or Changes in Behavior, We Need Solid Risk Communication as Well!

by William Burns
The Conversation
January 12th, 2009

Bernard Finel and John Mueller (I’ll respond separately to Camille Pecastaing’s commentary) offer spirited and at moments insightful objections to my central thesis that our dialog surrounding terrorism should have as its primary goal increased resilience to threats like terrorism. I also advocate we should confront fear of terrorism directly by risk communications grounded in [...]

Read: Reducing Actual Threat Doesn’t Translate Into Decreased Perceptions of Risk or Changes in Behavior, We Need Solid Risk Communication as Well!