Risk Perception & Behaviour Survey of Surveyors. Risk-SoS 2020 Preliminary results

One of the key challenges in risk, vulnerability and resilience is how to address the role of risk perceptions and how perceptions influence behaviour. A central question is why people still fail to act in an adaptive manner to reduce future losses, even when there are ever richer risk information provided by several communication channels (e.g. websites, social media, mobile applications, television, and print news). The current fragmentation of the field makes it an uphill battle to cross-validate the results of the current collection of independent case studies. This, in turn, hinders comparability and transferability across scales and contexts, and hampers giving recommendations for policy and risk management. While we obviously cannot all run the very same questionnaire or focus groups because we have different research interests, our ability to work together and build cumulative knowledge could be significantly improved by having: (1) a common list of minimal requirements to compare studies and surveys, (2) shared criteria to address context-specific aspects of countries and regions, (3) a selection of survey questions or themes allowing for comparability and long-term monitoring. Following the First European Conference on Risk Perception, Behaviour, Management and Response , the aim of the Risk Perception & Behaviour Survey of Surveyors (SoS) was to provide answers to move towards this direction.