title: The affect heuristic, mortality salience, and risk: domain-specific effects of a natural disaster on risk-benefit perception.
abstract: We examine how affect and accessible thoughts following a major natural disaster influence everyday risk perception. A survey was conducted in the months following the 2004 south Asian Tsunami in a representative sample of the Swedish population (N = 733). Respondents rated their experienced affect as well as the perceived risk and benefits of various everyday decision domains. Affect influenced risk and benefit perception in a way that could be predicted from both the affect-congruency and affect heuristic literatures (increased risk perception and stronger risk-benefit correlations). However, in some decision domains, self-regulation goals primed by the natural disaster predicted risk and benefit ratings. Together, these results show that affect, accessible thoughts and motivational states influence perceptions of risks and benefits.
authors.affiliation: Decision Research, Eugene, OR, USA; Department of Behavioral Sciences and Learning, Linköping University, Sweden.
authors.forename: Daniel
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Västfjäll
authors.forename: Ellen
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Peters
authors.forename: Paul
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Slovic
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D003625:Data Collection; D004190:Disasters; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D010465:Perception; D018570:Risk Assessment; D012309:Risk-Taking; D055815:Young Adult
keywords: Affect heuristic; mood; mortality salience; natural disaster; risk perception