Citation

Abrahamsson M, Johansson H. J. Risk Res. 2006; 9(7): 703-715.

Affiliation

Department of Fire Safety Engineering, Lund University, SE-221 00 Lund, Sweden

Copyright

(Copyright © 2006, Informa - Taylor and Francis Group)

DOI

unavailable

PMID

unavailable

Abstract

Risk preferences related to accidents or other situations involving the possibility of multiple fatalities were studied in 87 persons in Sweden belonging to two separate groups with professional or educational knowledge of risk- and crisis-management issues. Use was made of a tradeoff method, the results obtained consisting of von Neuman-Morgenstern utility functions over the range of 0-1000 fatalities. Most of the utility curves for the number of fatalities were found to be convex, implying the majority of subjects to display risk-seeking behaviour. Implications of the findings for societal risk decision making are discussed, along with prospective areas of application and the possibilities of considering other dimensions than the number of fatalities.