Published in:
01-06-2020 | Ebola Virus | Original Contribution
Catastrophic Risk: Waking Up to the Reality of a Pandemic?
Authors:
Jamison Pike, Jason F. Shogren, David Aadland, W. Kip Viscusi, David Finnoff, Alexandre Skiba, Peter Daszak
Published in:
EcoHealth
|
Issue 2/2020
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Abstract
Will a major shock awaken the US citizens to the threat of catastrophic pandemic risk? Using a natural experiment administered both before and after the 2014 West African Ebola Outbreak, our evidence suggests “no.” Our results show that prior to the Ebola scare, the US citizens were relatively complacent and placed a low relative priority on public spending to prepare for a pandemic disease outbreak relative to an environmental disaster risk (e.g., Fukushima) or a terrorist attack (e.g., 9/11). After the Ebola scare, the average citizen did not over-react to the risk. This flat reaction was unexpected given the well-known availability heuristic—people tend to over-weigh judgments of events more heavily toward more recent information. In contrast, the average citizen continued to value pandemic risk less relative to terrorism or environmental risk.