Behavioural science applied to risk-based decision processes: a case study for earthquake prone buildings in New Zealand

ABSTRACT

Policy and technical guidance are only as good as their implementation. Often well-meaning legislation has unintended consequences, as individuals and organisations overlay their own risk perceptions and understanding to an issue.

This paper illustrates how behavioural science can be applied to risk-based engineering decisions to improve decision outcomes. It is framed around an analysis of the management of earthquake prone public buildings in New Zealand. It demonstrates how the individual, social and cultural contexts can influence how risks and impacts are perceived, evaluated, and communicated. The framing of the decision, unconscious biases, cognitive limitations, trust, and other social influences are all critical factors in translation of technical policy to effective outcomes.

KEYWORDS:

• Risk management
• earthquake prone buildings
• policy implementation
• decision making

Acknowledgements

This project has been enabled through BRANZ Research Levy funding. We are grateful for their ongoing support. This work was also (partially) supported by QuakeCoRE, a New Zealand Tertiary Education Commission-funded Centre. This is QuakeCoRE publication number 0693.

We would like to sincerely thank the council representatives that contributed their valuable time and insight to this project.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

1 For explanation of seismic risk zones in New Zealand, see: http://www.seismicresilience.org.nz/topics/seismic-science-and-site-influences/faults/earthquake-risk-zones/

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by BRANZ Research Levy: Grant Number ER11645; QuakeCoRE: Grant Number E6471_2021SF02-CB.