“Beyond the Horizon: Strategies for Managing Unseen Risks.” This was the theme of the Society for Risk Analysis (SRA) annual conference where IPUR members Prof Leonard Lee, Dr Olivia Jensen, and David Reid presented key research projects.
At the conference in in Austin, Texas, from December 8-12, 2024, Prof Lee, IPUR Director, presented ongoing work on developing “phenotypes” of individuals to reflect their different needs in risk communication. This research aims to provide guidance for professionals communicating risk information to the public more effectively.
Dr Jensen, IPUR Deputy Director, along with Dr Leonor Sierra from Sense About Science, presented preliminary findings from the Risk know-how (RKH) Initiative investigating how public authorities assess their own risk communications.
The study covers examples from food safety, environmental regulation and natural disaster management in five countries. A key findings is that many of these regulators have a stated objective to help the public take informed decisions relating to risks, but evaluation metrics for risk communications very rarely try to measure this. Instead, the metrics that are actually used and reported by organisations measure activities like how many reports are produced, or exposure to information (e.g. number of website visitors), but fall very short when it comes to assessing whether information was understood and used by the public. In the coming year, the RKH project team is aiming to develop outcome-focused metrics and to work with organisations to incorporate them into their monitoring processes.
IPUR Visiting Fellow David Reid chaired a session on Risk Communication and Perception featuring talks from Prof Ortwin Renn on the polycrisis and Joseph Toland on community risk perceptions following the East Palestine chemical spill and fires. David also gave a presentation on how insights from the Lloyd’s Register Foundation World Risk Poll can help us build a resilient future. Resilience is vital for managing and recovering from unforeseen events and major disasters. The latest results from the Lloyd’s Register Foundation World Risk Poll contain insights that can guide policy interventions to help countries and local communities to adapt, emerge stronger, and become better prepared for unforeseen risks.
