Sunday, October 7, 2012: 11:15 AM
It is well documented that not only do risk attitude and risk perception differ across individuals, but also within individuals these risk measures may be domain specific. An individual may be risk averse in financial decisions, but risk loving in her leisure activity choices. One may perceive a similar probability differently in gambling situations compared to medical decision making. Blais and Weber (2006) present the ‘domain specific risk-taking scale’ (DOSPERT) as a tool used to measure subjects’ risk perception and risk attitude in financial, gambling, safety, recreation, ethical, and social decisions (Judgment and Decision Making; 1(1): 33-47). The DOSPERT measures risk perception, benefit perception, and risk attitude in each domain using a 7-point scale based on a subject’s responses to 6 items in each domain. The DOSPERT has become a standard tool for use in experiments and survey research involving decision making under risk; however, some decision making domains are not represented in the original DOSPERT scale. Weather-related decision making (for example, the decision to seek shelter upon receiving a tornado warning, or to evacuate in advance of a hurricane) by definition involve risk: weather forecasts are probabilistic as are the outcomes of weather events. The ability to assess risk perception and risk attitude as they pertain to weather-related risk is a precondition to understanding the decision-making process in this domain as well as improving the communication of weather-related risk. In this paper we present the preliminary development of a DOSPERT scale for weather-related decisions. Potential items are compared and results of initial test surveys are discussed with the goal of refining a set of items to measure risk perception and risk attitude in this domain.