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Better safe than sorry: Precautionary reasoning and implied dominance in risky decisions by Michael L. DeKay; Dalia Patiño-Echeverri; Paul S. Fischbeck is a Decision Sciences article available to read on EtoBox.

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## Abstract In four studies, student and nonstudent participants evaluated the possible outcomes of binary decisions involving health, safety, and environmental risks (e.g., whether to issue a dam‐failure evacuation order). Many participants indicated that false positives (e.g., evacuation, but no dam failure) were better than true negatives (e.g., no evacuation and no dam failure), thereby implying that the more protective action dominated the less protective action. A common rationale for this response pattern was the precautionary maxim “better safe than sorry.” Participants apparently evaluated outcomes partly on the basis of the decisions that might lead to them, in conflict with consequentialist decision models. Consistent with this explanation, the prevalence of implied dominance decreased substantially when the emphasis on decisions was reduced. These results demonstrate that an initial preference for a decision alternative can alter the evaluation of possible consequences of both the preferred alternative and a competing alternative, suggesting positive feedback loops that reinforce the initial preference. The rationality of considering the decision itself as an attribute

Who reads Better safe than sorry: Precautionary reasoning and implied dominance in risky decisions?

Author

Michael L. DeKay; Dalia Patiño-Echeverri; Paul S. Fischbeck

Publisher

John Wiley and Sons; Wiley (John Wiley & Sons); John Wiley & Sons Inc.; Wiley (ISSN 0894-3257)

Published

2009

Language

EN

Field

Decision Sciences (Social Sciences)