Risk psychology: self-reliant behaviour
Societal resilience
- Relies on the public’s ability to adapt, learn, and reorganize in response to crises,
uncertainty, and change
- Cooperation and collective action depend on intangible resources like social capital
(strong community networks, shared norms), high institutional trust, and a sense of
collective efficacy
- Ongoing process of preparation, response, and renewal
- Psychological acceptance of risk, ability to manage fear and uncertainty, and a
shared narrative fosters recovery afer disaster
Example:
A community is high in social capital, trust, and cooperation. When a flood hits,
neighbors check up on each other, local government distributes resources equitably,
and the public complies with safety guidance. This leads to collective rebuilding and
recovery after the disaster.
Bystander effect
- Results from diffusion of responsibility, where each individual believes that someone
else will step in to intervene in a situation
- Results from pluralistic ignorance, where individuals look to others to interpret an
ambiguous situation which could lead to collective inaction if no one is responding
strongly to the situation
- Results from evaluation apprehension, where individuals fear being judged as
overreacting or misinterpreting the situation
Example:
Someone collapses in the middle of a busy street. No one stops to help them
because they assume someone else might call emergency services (diffusion of
responsibility); they assume that since everyone else is walking past them with barely
a glance, the person must be fine (pluralistic ignorance); they worry that if they rush
over to help the person, it might turn out that they never needed help (evaluation
apprehension)
Phases in a crisis
- Pre-crisis: denial and normalcy
- Underestimated probability of a crisis due to optimism bias leads to
inadequate preparation
- Acute crisis: threat rigidity and cognitive narrowing
- Extreme stress leads to familiar though often ineffective decision making
based on immediate survival rather than long-term outcomes
- Post crisis: recrimination and hindsight bias
- Often a strong drive to assign blame for the disaster, saying that the disaster
could have been predicted and prevented
Example:
A company’s IT department warns the board that the security system is outdated, but
the board does not see themselves as susceptible to a data breach (denial and
normalcy). When a data breach does occur, the leadership panics and focuses on
containing the immediate leak rather than communicating with the public or
regulators, thus hurting their reputation (threat rigidity and cognitive narrowing). After
Societal resilience
- Relies on the public’s ability to adapt, learn, and reorganize in response to crises,
uncertainty, and change
- Cooperation and collective action depend on intangible resources like social capital
(strong community networks, shared norms), high institutional trust, and a sense of
collective efficacy
- Ongoing process of preparation, response, and renewal
- Psychological acceptance of risk, ability to manage fear and uncertainty, and a
shared narrative fosters recovery afer disaster
Example:
A community is high in social capital, trust, and cooperation. When a flood hits,
neighbors check up on each other, local government distributes resources equitably,
and the public complies with safety guidance. This leads to collective rebuilding and
recovery after the disaster.
Bystander effect
- Results from diffusion of responsibility, where each individual believes that someone
else will step in to intervene in a situation
- Results from pluralistic ignorance, where individuals look to others to interpret an
ambiguous situation which could lead to collective inaction if no one is responding
strongly to the situation
- Results from evaluation apprehension, where individuals fear being judged as
overreacting or misinterpreting the situation
Example:
Someone collapses in the middle of a busy street. No one stops to help them
because they assume someone else might call emergency services (diffusion of
responsibility); they assume that since everyone else is walking past them with barely
a glance, the person must be fine (pluralistic ignorance); they worry that if they rush
over to help the person, it might turn out that they never needed help (evaluation
apprehension)
Phases in a crisis
- Pre-crisis: denial and normalcy
- Underestimated probability of a crisis due to optimism bias leads to
inadequate preparation
- Acute crisis: threat rigidity and cognitive narrowing
- Extreme stress leads to familiar though often ineffective decision making
based on immediate survival rather than long-term outcomes
- Post crisis: recrimination and hindsight bias
- Often a strong drive to assign blame for the disaster, saying that the disaster
could have been predicted and prevented
Example:
A company’s IT department warns the board that the security system is outdated, but
the board does not see themselves as susceptible to a data breach (denial and
normalcy). When a data breach does occur, the leadership panics and focuses on
containing the immediate leak rather than communicating with the public or
regulators, thus hurting their reputation (threat rigidity and cognitive narrowing). After
