The Ostrich Paradox: Why We Underprepare for Disasters

This book does a great job of addressing individual cognitive biases that take place when it comes to implementing preventive measures against disasters. The book also does a great job of presenting some practical ideas how we can individually and collectively improve our decision making when it comes to implementing preventive measures. If you are in the field of emergency management, disaster recovery, and even local govern,ent, I highly recommend this book.

An explanation of the reasons why we make the wrong decisions and what we can do about it.

è un ottima lettura per approfondire aspetti cognitivi riguardanti i bias che intervengono contro le assicurazioni contro i danni. Il libro è ben fatto, chiaro e di facile comprensione, a tratti quasi divertente; ma aiuta molto a riflettere!

A companion gift for my friend

This short, well-written book uses vivid stories from hurricanes, earthquakes, fires and floods to show the mental biases that keep us from preparing for disasters, even disasters we know are coming. The authors apply “Kahneman and Tversky” psychology to improve our behavior.While most of the examples in this book come from natural disasters, these mental errors contribute to many low probability but high consequence catastrophes. I couldn’t help but think about errors investors make in the stock market. Myopia: focusing on too short a time horizon; Amnesia: forgetting lessons of past disasters; Herding!The second half of the book offers strategies to overcome these biases, but this area needs more work. The authors present a framework for a behavioral risk audit and describe preparedness plans that take our natural biases into account. I wish they had more examples of successful preparation to share. If planners read this book, maybe those will come.