Combining risk perception and risk attitude: Integrating quantitative and qualitative methods for building

a comprehensive individual risk behaviour model

Trento, 21st October 2010 Workshop Risk Elicitation and Stated Preference Methods for Climate Change Research

Frankwin van Winsen, Erwin Wauters, Ludwig Lauwers, Steven Van Passel

Institute for Agricultural and Fisheries ResearchSocial Sciences Unit

www.ilvo.vlaanderen.beAgriculture and Fisheries Policy Area

Overview of the presentation

• Risk paradigms • Risk and agriculture• Research on individual risk behaviour

– Risk attitude– Risk perception

• First Conclusions• A basic model for individual risk behaviour• Building further on the model (participatory approach)• Discussion & Questions

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Risk paradigms

• Risk is about uncertainty and consequences

• Different views on risk– Constructivism and Risk: Risk is a social

construct inseparable from social and cultural processes.

– Real Risk, risk is objectively measurable– Subjective interpretation, risk is objectively

measurable however personal interpretation

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Risk and agriculture

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• Climate – Caused by: storms, hail, rain, floods, droughts,

diseases – Effects: Yield risks and price risk

• Policy – Regulation– Cap transforms

• Market – Internationalisation of markets– Increased price volatility: both input as output

prices

Research on risk behaviour

• Most common determinant on individual risk behaviour is risk attitude:

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Most measures derived from expected utility:

• Risk Attitude• Relative Risk Attitude• Perceived Risk Attitude

Research on risk behaviour

• Most common determinant on individual risk behaviour is risk attitude:– Attitude derived from gamble experiments– Attitude seen as stable personality trait– No determinants for risk behaviour other than attitude– Behaviour optimalization given risk attitude

• However– Risk attitude is context specific– Risk perception should be taken into account– Risk attitude is manegable and should be optimalised given

a wanted behaviour– Integrated model by Pablo and Sitkin

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Current research on perception:• Psychometric Paradigm• Cultural Theory• Social Amplification of risk

Important message: Risk perception is influenced by more than just an imperfect knowledge transfer from real risk information

Some conclusions

• When investigating individual risk behaviour:– See risk attitude as a context specific and

a manageable trait in order to optimalize behaviour

– Take risk perception influenced by social and cultural determinants into account together with risk attitude.

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An example

• A day at the horse races:– Observation: Gamblers that lose during the day in the

end of the day start betting on long shots.– Explanation: Not risk attitude changes but the

perception of the gamblers on who the winning horses are.

• Feedbacks: – To: Attitude and Perception – To: knowledge on the real risk– Risk management

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Men

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Mod

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A basic individual risk behaviour model

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Information transfer of real risk

Perceived Risk

Real Risk

Perceived risk more than information transfer of the real risk:

• Social and cultural factors• Personality / Motivation• Habbits• Perceived Behavioural Control

A basic individual risk behaviour model

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Real Risk

Perceived Risk

Risk AttitudeM

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Risk Behaviour

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Building further on the model

• Research is needed to build on this model:– Using a participatory approach actively involving farmers in

building on the model– Integrating qualitative and quantitative research

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Thank you for your attention!

Trento, 21st October 2010 Workshop Risk Elicitation and Stated Preference Methods for Climate Change Research

Frankwin van Winsen (frankwin.vanwinsen@ilvo.vlaanderen.be)

Institute for Agricultural and Fisheries ResearchSocial SciencesUnit

www.ilvo.vlaanderen.beAgriculture and Fisheries Policy Area