ABSTRACT
A subset of risk communication, warnings are decision aids, helping people to make good choices, in situations where they exert some control. Behavioral decision research offers a systematic approach to identifying and removing the obstacles to understanding the impacts of risk-related choices. Behavioral decision research has three interrelated elements: (a) normative: formally analyzing the audience’s information needs; (b) descriptive: empirically determining audience members’ mental models of their circumstances, and (c) prescriptive: designing interventions to bridge the critical gaps, drawing on basic research as well as context-specific studies. This chapter addresses these elements in turn. It concludes by placing risk communication within the context of larger policy issues of risk management, law, and policy.
