LEARNING OUTCOMES

The course will address the topic of risk from a psychosocial perspective, as it is perceived by stakeholders and as it is communicated among them. The adequate approach to risk will interpret the events with the proper perspective, allowing the system (i.e., the community, the political and technical administrators) to prevent or reduce the exposure to risk. The Resilience Engineering approach will be proposed, in order to enable the system to adjust its functions prior to, during, or following changes and disturbances, and thereby sustain required operations under both expected and unexpected conditions. In addition, the course will address the issue of risk communication with the community, both in proactive (risk awareness and preparedness) and reactive conditions (emergency management).ng

AIMS AND LEARNING OUTCOMES

After an introduction to the several approaches to investigate and model human risk perception, we will describe the communication strategies more effective for promoting a proper risk perception in the community.

At the end of the course, the students will be able to:

- describe the main approaches to model risk perception

- apply the risk perception theories to specific case studies and different environmental risks

- describe on the most recent communication strategies to trigger behavioural changes in citizens

- list the main phases of risk communication plans

- apply the communication principles to specific case studies

- describe the main characteristics of crisis communication

- apply the principles of resilience engineering to environmental risk communication

- describe the most recent approaches and researches about participatory risk management

PREREQUISITES

No prerequisites needed

TEACHING METHODS

·      Frontal teaching

·      Case studies

·      Video analysis

·      Group activities

·      Talks

SYLLABUS/CONTENT

Syllabus

- introduction to the course

- definition of risk and risk perception

- rational approach to risk perception

- neurophysiology of risk perception

- risk perception and decision making

- bounded rationality

- heuristics and biases

- the psychometric paradigm of risk perception

- personal characteristics that affect risk perception

- social and cultural factors in risk perception

- risk perception models

- risk communication models

- nudge approach to risk communication

- effective communication of risks

- crisis communication

- dealing with the media

- building community resilience

RECOMMENDED READING/BIBLIOGRAPHY

- slides on aulaweb

- Pamela (Ferrante) Walaski (2011). Risk and Crisis Communications: Methods and Messages, New York, Wiley.

- David Ropeik (2010). How Risky Is It, Really? Why Our Fears Don't Always Match the Facts. McGraw-Hill