Ann Bostrom

Professor Ann Bostrom, Weyerhaeuser Endowed Professor in Environmental Policy, University of Washington

Ways people talk about risk and uncertainty

Differences among and between those who have risk-related experiences or expertise can lead them to talk about risk and uncertainty in sharply divergent and discrepant ways. Talk about risk and uncertainty can take the form of numbers, words, or visuals, creating a variety of sense-making opportunities, but also translational hurdles. Perhaps more fundamentally, uncertainty about the nature of risk triggers reliance on analogies, which introduce their own uncertainties. In this presentation, climate change mental models interviews will be used to illustrate the diverse ways people talk, or fail to talk, about climate change risks and uncertainties.

Speaker biosketch

Ann Bostrom is the Weyerhaeuser endowed Professor of Environmental Policy at the Daniel J. Evans School of Public Policy and Governance at the University of Washington. Dr. Bostrom holds a Ph.D. in policy analysis from Carnegie Mellon University. She completed postdoctoral studies in Engineering and Public Policy at Carnegie Mellon University and in cognitive aspects of survey methodology at the Bureau of Labor Statistics. From 1999 to 2001 she took leave to co-direct the Decision Risk and Management Science Program at the National Science Foundation (NSF). Bostrom studies mental models of hazardous processes (how people understand and make decisions about risks), and collaborates with interdisciplinary teams to investigate risk perceptions and communication strategies for environmental and health risks, for example, with regard to earthquake early warning, earthquake and tsunami risks, climate change and extreme weather. She is currently working with the United States Geological Survey Social Sciences Working Group on perceptions and preparedness for earthquake early warning, and with the NSF AI Institute for Research on Trustworthy AI in Weather, Climate, and Coastal Oceanography (AI2ES) on risk perception and communication of AI in environmental forecasting. Bostrom is the recipient of the Distinguished Educator Award and of the Chauncy Starr Award from the Society for Risk Analysis, of which she is a Fellow and Past President.