The Ostrich Paradox, Howard Kunreuther
The Ostrich Paradox, Howard Kunreuther
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The Ostrich Paradox
Why We Underprepare for Disasters

Author: Howard Kunreuther, Robert Meyer

Narrator: Don Hagen

Unabridged: 3 hr 24 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Publisher: Ascent Audio

Published: 03/01/2017


Synopsis

“The Ostrich Paradox boldly addresses a key question of our time: Why are we humans so poor at dealing with disastrous risks, and what can we humans do about it? It is a must-hear for everyone who cares about risk.”
—Daniel Kahneman, winner of the Nobel Prize in Economics and author of Thinking, Fast and Slow

We fail to evacuate when advised. We rebuild in flood zones. We don’t wear helmets. We fail to purchase insurance. We would rather avoid the risk of “crying wolf” than sound an alarm.

Our ability to foresee and protect against natural catastrophes has never been greater; yet, we consistently fail to heed the warnings and protect ourselves and our communities, with devastating consequences. What explains this contradiction?

In The Ostrich Paradox, Wharton professors Robert Meyer and Howard Kunreuther draw on years of teaching and research to explain why disaster preparedness efforts consistently fall short. Filled with heartbreaking stories of loss and resilience, the book addresses:

How people make decisions when confronted with high-consequence, low-probability events—and how these decisions can go awry
The 6 biases that lead individuals, communities, and institutions to make grave errors that cost lives
The Behavioral Risk Audit, a systematic approach for improving preparedness by recognizing these biases and designing strategies that anticipate them
Why, if we are to be better prepared for disasters, we need to learn to be more like ostriches, not less

Fast-reading and critically important, The Ostrich Paradox is a must-hear for anyone who wants to understand why we consistently underprepare for disasters, as well as private and public leaders, planners, and policy-makers who want to build more prepared communities.

Reviews

Goodreads review by Michael

Meyer and Kunrether synthesize years of experience to develop a model for why individuals and organizations consistently fail in the face of crisis, and offer some brief policy recommendations. Their work is anchored in cognitive psychology, particularly Kahneman's Thinking Fast, and Slow. System 1......more

Goodreads review by JHM

Insightful and easy to digest book about the patterns of cognitive bias which commonly prevent both individuals and organizations from being able to accurately understand risks and deal with them effectively. It's main theme is emergency preparation, but it also draws examples from the world of fina......more

Goodreads review by Pete

The Ostrich Paradox (2017) by Robert Meyer and Howard Kunreuther looks at why the authors believe people are so poor at handling disastrous risks. Meyer is a professor of marketing at Wharton and Kenreuther is a professor of decision making also at Wharton.  The book uses a framework of  Kahneman and......more

Goodreads review by Trey

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 exampl......more

Goodreads review by Chris

I wasn't sure what to expect from this book, but it was surprisingly good. As someone who loves reading about cognitive psychology and the thinking errors we're all prone to, this was a great book looking at these issues from a different angle. In this book, Meyer and Kunreuther start each chapter d......more