FEMA and its emergency management partners released Dr. Howard Kunreuther’s “Human Biases: Why People Underprepare for Disasters.” In his PrepTalk, Dr. Kunreuther discusses the processes and biases in decision-making under uncertainty. He also proposes a behavioral risk audit that couples protective decision-making with economic incentives, enabling individual and collective actions to achieve greater resilience.
Dr. Kunreuther is Professor Emeritus of Decision Sciences and Public Policy in the Operations, Information and Decisions Department, and Co-Director of the Wharton Risk Management and Decision Processes Center at the Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania. Dr. Kunreuther has a long-standing interest in ways that society can better manage low-probability, high-consequence events related to technological and natural hazards.
His PrepTalk video, an accompanying American Sign Language video, and additional resources are available at www.fema.gov/preptalks. Kunreuther is the sixth presentation to be released on video from the 5th PrepTalks Symposium, held September 19th in Washington, DC.
PrepTalks are a partnership between FEMA, the International Association of Emergency Managers, the National Emergency Management Association, the National Homeland Security Consortium, and the Naval Postgraduate School Center for Homeland Defense and Security.
