Risk, Perception, and Response Conference

March 20-21, 2014

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Keynote Speaker Cass Sunstein

 Cass R. Sunstein is the keynote speaker for HCRA’s Risk, Perception, and Response conference. Mr. Sunstein is the Robert Walmsley University Professor at Harvard and founded the Program on Behavioral Economics and Public Policy at Harvard Law School. He is the author of numerous articles and books, including Nudge: Improving Decisions about Health, Wealth, and Happiness (with Richard H. Thaler, 2008) and most recently Simpler: The Future of Government (2013). From 2009 to 2012, he was Administrator of the White House Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs.

Conference Overview

How people react to scientific evidence of risk is mediated by many factors, including how risk information is perceived and communicated, how we react to social and cultural influences, and how choices are structured. Examples abound of situations where individuals’ risk perceptions lead them to act in ways that appear contrary to their own interests, overreacting to or neglecting risks. How can situations in which individuals are likely to respond poorly be identified, and what can be done to improve their responses? To increase our understanding of the factors that contribute to these behaviors and to develop better options for fostering sound decisions, the Harvard Center for Risk Analysis commissioned a series of papers that were presented at this March 20-21, 2014 conference.

Agenda (click here for more detail)

Thursday, March 20, 2014
8:00 – 8:30       Registration and Breakfast
8:30 – 8:45       Introduction and Overview
8:45 – 10:15      Panel 1: Conceptual Framework and Crosscutting Issues
10:15 – 10:45    Break
10:45 – 12:00   Panel 2: Health Care I
12:00 – 1:15      Lunch
1:15 – 2:30        Panel 3: Occupational and Transportation Risk
2:30 – 3:00      Break
3:00 – 4:30      Panel 4: Food Safety
4:30 – 5:00      Open Discussion: Cross-cutting Insights

Friday, March 21, 2014
8:00 – 8:30      Registration and Breakfast
8:30 – 10:00     Panel 5: Health Care II
10:00 – 10:15   Break
10:15 – 11:45   Panel 6: Energy and the Environment
11:45 – 1:30     Lunch: Cass Sunstein, keynote speaker, “Choosing not to Choose”
1:30 – 2:15       Panel 7: Finance
2:15 – 2:45      Open Discussion: Cross-cutting Insights
2:45 – 3:00      Break
3:00 – 5:00      20th Kyoto University International Symposium

Call for Papers

The deadline for submissions has passed. The Call for Papers is provided for information only.

Peer Review

We thank the following for their thoughtful review of the submissions:

John Besley (Michigan State University); Frederic Bouder (Maastricht University); Frank Hearl (National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health); Margot Kuttschreuter (University of Twente); Randall Lutter (Resources for the Future); Katherine McComas (Cornell University); Clark Nardinelli (U.S. Food and Drug Administration); David Ropeik (Harvard University); Louise Russell (Rutgers University); Karen Sepucha (Harvard University); Douglass Shaw (Texas A&M University); Paul Slovic (Decision Research); Craig Trumbo (Colorado State University); Eve Wittenberg (Harvard University); Felicia Wu (Michigan State University).

Funding for this project is provided by the Risk of Risk Perception Project of the Center for Risk Science Innovation and Application of the ILSI Research Foundation. The conference is sponsored by the Society for Risk Analysis.

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