Behavioral Nudges in a Wildfire Risk Context: Social Comparison and Community Type

University Of Colorado At Boulder, Boulder CO

Investigators

Abstract

Wildfires cost billions of dollars to suppress annually, yet they still devastate lives, communities, and ecosystems. The government and other entities invest significantly in supporting wildfire risk mitigation on private property and related education to the public. This project investigates the efficacy of a relatively low-cost approach to increase citizens' engagement with these efforts, potentially increasing their effectiveness. Specifically, the project involves an experiment examining the extent to which including different types of wildfire risk assessment information (community-level, parcel-level, comparative) in the outreach material influences peoples' behavior. The experiment will also investigate the behavioral effects of including personalized and social comparison information. The behavioral outcomes measured in the experiment reflect the kinds of behaviors risk reduction education and outreach efforts across the nation are intended to promote. If found effective, the studied approach could be implemented in other areas where parcel level risk assessments exist, related to a range of hazards. The experimental design applies different information treatments to direct mailings that encourages residents to access multiple sources of information provided by practitioners, including local community meetings. This design allows exploration of how existing biases may be leveraged to encourage behaviors that are individually, socially, and environmentally beneficial. From risk information seeking to mitigation activities, the behavioral outcomes that result from nudges involving personalization and social comparison will be measured across different community types in order to assess the role social context plays in such outcomes. Importantly, the project builds on a unique researcher-practitioner collaboration to conduct the study in communities in the wildland-urban interface, where residents face high risk of wildfire-related losses. This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.