Risk Literacy and Communication (RiCoM)
The Max Planck Partner Group on “Boosting Risk Literacy and Communication” addresses fundamental questions about how individuals and institutions understand and communicate risk. We investigate both the cognitive processes underlying risk comprehension and the effectiveness of different communication strategies.
Over the next five years, we aim to:
- Identify core competencies for risk literacy and, particularly, explore how common households and experts conceptualize risk
- Design innovative risk communication tools (e.g., LLM-based advisories) that account for culturally sensitive risk priorities (e.g., linguistics) and dynamics within groups (e.g., experts vs. everyday decision-makers)
- Connect theory and practice, with direct implications for how institutions communicate risk to foster informed decision-making
The Partner Group started its work on 1 August 2024 and will be working at the MPIB until 31 July 2029. The Group is headed by Kavitha Ranganathan, a research scientist and Professor at the T. A. Pai Management Institute (TAPMI) in Manipal, India. Dr. Ranganathan works in close collaboration with projects at the Center for Adaptive Rationality (ARC), partnering with Dr. Dirk Wulff (ARC) and with Dr. Felix Rebitschek at the Harding Center for Risk Literacy at the University of Potsdam.
Selected Publications
Lejarraga, T., Ranganathan, K., & Wulff, D. U. (2024). Can simulated experience be harnessed to help people make investment decisions?. Judgment and Decision Making, 19, e24. https://doi.org/10.1017/jdm.2024.17 [Add to Citavi project by DOI]
Chui, A., Ranganathan, K., Rohit, A., & Veeraraghavan, M. (2023). Momentum, reversals and liquidity: Indian evidence. Pacific-Basin Finance Journal, 82, 102193. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.pacfin.2023.102193 [Add to Citavi project by DOI]
Ranganathan, K., & Lejarraga, T. (2021). Elicitation of risk preferences through satisficing. Journal of Behavioral and Experimental Finance, 32, 100570. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jbef.2021.100570 [Add to Citavi project by DOI]
Berg, N., Prakhya, S., & Ranganathan, K. (2018). A satisficing approach to eliciting risk preferences. Journal of Business Research, 82, 127-140. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jbusres.2017.08.029 [Add to Citavi project by DOI]