Findings on Risk Management Reported by Investigators at National Center for Atmospheric Research (Explicating Experience: Development of a Valid Scale of Past Hazard Experience for Tornadoes)

By a News Reporter-Staff News Editor at Insurance Weekly News -- Investigators discuss new findings in Risk Management. According to news reporting out of Boulder, Colorado, by VerticalNews editors, the research stated, "People's past experiences with a hazard theoretically influence how they approach future risks. Yet, past hazard experience has been conceptualized and measured in wide-ranging, often simplistic, ways, resulting in mixed findings about its relationship with risk perception."

Our news journalists obtained a quote from the research from National Center for Atmospheric Research, "This study develops a scale of past hazard experiences, in the context of tornadoes, that is content and construct valid. A conceptual definition was developed, a set of items were created to measure one's most memorable and multiple tornado experiences, and the measures were evaluated through two surveys of the public who reside in tornado-prone areas. Four dimensions emerged of people's most memorable experience, reflecting their awareness of the tornado risk that day, their personalization of the risk, the intrusive impacts on them personally, and impacts experienced vicariously through others. Two dimensions emerged of people's multiple experiences, reflecting common types of communication received and negative emotional responses. These six dimensions are novel in that they capture people's experience across the timeline of a hazard as well as intangible experiences that are both direct and indirect. The six tornado experience dimensions were correlated with tornado risk perceptions measured as cognitive-affective and as perceived probability of consequences. The varied experience-risk perception results suggest that it is important to understand the nuances of these concepts and their relationships."

According to the news editors, the research concluded: "This study provides a foundation for future work to continue explicating past hazard experience, across different risk contexts, and for understanding its effect on risk assessment and responses."

For more information on this research see: Explicating Experience: Development of a Valid Scale of Past Hazard Experience for Tornadoes. Risk Analysis, 2018;38(9):1921-1943. Risk Analysis can be contacted at: Wiley, 111 River St, Hoboken 07030-5774, NJ, USA. (Wiley-Blackwell - www.wiley.com/; Risk Analysis - onlinelibrary.wiley.com/journal/10.1111/(ISSN)1539-6924)

Our news journalists report that additional information may be obtained by contacting J.L. Demuth, Natl Center Atmospher Res, Mesoscale & Microscale Meteorol Lab, Boulder, CO 80307, United States.

The direct object identifier (DOI) for that additional information is: https://doi.org/10.1111/risa.12983. This DOI is a link to an online electronic document that is either free or for purchase, and can be your direct source for a journal article and its citation.

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