The Ostrich Paradox: Why We Underprepare for Disasters - Paperback

by Robert Meyer (Author), Howard Kunreuther (Author)

"The Ostrich Paradox boldly addresses a key question of our time: Why are we humans so poor at dealing with disastrous risks, and what can we humans do about it? It is a must-read for everyone who cares about risk."
--Daniel Kahneman, winner of the Nobel Prize in Economics and author of Thinking, Fast and Slow

• How people make decisions when confronted with high-consequence, low-probability events--and how these decisions can go awry
• The 6 biases that lead individuals, communities, and institutions to make grave errors that cost lives
• The Behavioral Risk Audit, a systematic approach for improving preparedness by recognizing these biases and designing strategies that anticipate them
• Why, if we are to be better prepared for disasters, we need to learn to be more like ostriches, not less

Author Biography

Robert Meyer, Frederick H. Ecker/MetLife Insurance Professor of Marketing at the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania and codirector of the Wharton Risk Management and Decision Processes Center. His work has appeared in a wide variety of professional journals and books, including the Journal of Consumer Research; Journal of Marketing Research; Journal of Risk and Uncertainty; Marketing Science; Management Science; and Risk Analysis. Howard Kunreuther, James G. Dinan Professor of Decision Sciences and Public Policy at the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania and codirector of the Wharton Risk Management and Decision Processes Center. His recent books include At War with the Weather (with Erwann Michel-Kerjan), winner of the Kulp-Wright Book Award from the American Risk and Insurance Association in 2011; Insurance and Behavioral Economics: Improving Decisions in the Most Misunderstood Industry (with Mark Pauly and Stacey McMorrow); and Leadership Dispatches: Chileand#8217;s Extraordinary Comeback from Disaster (with Michael Useem and Erwann Michel-Kerjan).