Human Risk - PSY00096M
Module will run
Occurrence | Teaching period |
---|---|
A | Semester 1 2025-26 |
Module aims
As more powerful technologies become more accessible to more people, the future of the species depends almost entirely on human decision making and behaviour. This basic insight puts psychology—the science of thinking and behaviour—at the fulcrum of extinction versus flourishing. Navigating risk involves more than mere number crunching. Decades of research in cognitive science has shown that understanding risk involves grappling with individual differences, context, and societal factors. In this module, we will examine these and other factors, achieving an up-to-date overview on the psychology of risk, and asking how a scientific approach to forecasting, luck, and error can help humanity survive the current century.
Module learning outcomes
- Discuss the development of rational approaches to risk and their relation to psychological theory
- Critically evaluate how everyday risk perception deviates from rational risk assessment in systematic and predictable ways
- Integrate the role of risk at different levels of analysis—brain, person, group, society—and over different timescales
- Reason about the impact of decisions taken now on the future of humanity.
Module content
- Origins of risk research
- Hazards and risk perception
- Development and individual differences
- Luck and games
- Frontiers of forecasting
- Disaster and risk mitigation
- Extinction risks
Indicative assessment
Task | % of module mark |
---|---|
Essay/coursework | 100 |
Special assessment rules
None
Indicative reassessment
Task | % of module mark |
---|---|
Essay/coursework | 100 |
Module feedback
The marks on all assessed work will be provided on e-vision.
Indicative reading
None specified.