Responding to crises and disasters: the role of risk attitudes and risk perceptions

Discussions are taking place both in the United States and in Europe about how governments should respond to both disasters and crises, and how citizens' non-desirable behaviour might be managed with respect to such disasters. Here we examine the role that risk attitudes and risk perceptions play in decision making behaviour of individuals in times of crises and disasters and how knowledge about individual behaviour and its drivers may be helpful when developing policy. The proposed framework complements the existing literature, thereby further enriching the knowledge of crises and disaster management.