Reducing individuals' risk sensitiveness can promote positive and non-alarmist views about catastrophic events in an agent-based simulation

Abstract

We present a cognitive model of opinion dynamics which studies the behavior of a population of interacting individuals in the context of risk of natural disaster. In particular, we investigate the response of the individuals to the information received by institutional sources about the correct behaviors for prevention and harm reduction. The results of our study show that alarmist opinions are more likely to be adopted by populations, since worried people