ABSTRACT
The main argument of the present chapter is that the lottery model does not fit naturalistic decision making in general. Instead, the decision process resembles a problem solving process, in which the decision maker engages in risk management by trying to eliminate or to reduce the risk of a negative event or its consequences by applying one or several defusing operators. The chapter first summarises two experiments and their results, which show that behaviour in naturalistic tasks differs distinctly from that expected according to traditional decision theory. An outline of risk management as a central subprocess in the decision process is then presented, with an outline of the role of uncertainty and the representation of naturalistic decision tasks. Finally, some aspects of research on naturalistic risky tasks are discussed.
