Risk: Risk Communication and Protective Behavior

We study the effectiveness of various types and formats of information in influencing:

• individuals’ risk perception, and
• protective behavior across different risk-related contexts, such as vaccine uptake, purchasing insurance, or refraining from using mobile phones while driving.

The types of information we analyze include statistical and anecdotal risk information, message framing, and fear appeals. We investigate their impact depending on relevant conditions such as:

•  recipient characteristics (e.g., optimism, perception of risk), and
• message or protagonist characteristics (e.g., expressed regret).
  
  Selected publications in this area include:
• Praxmarer-Carus, S.; Wolkenstörfer, S. (2022): How the Effect of Adding Regret to Fear Appeals Depends on the Perceived Likelihood of the Negative Event, AMA Marketing and Public Policy Conference.
• Praxmarer-Carus, S.; Wieluch, M.I. (2022): Now or Never? Temporal Framing in Risk Messages and the Moderating Effect of Comparative Optimism, Zeitschrift für die gesamte Versicherungswissenschaft, Vol. 111.