Natural Hazard & Job Choice Game

Understanding how geoscientists prioritize natural hazard risk in their decision-making

The Natural Hazards and Job Choice game was a survey-based simulation designed to assess how people weigh natural hazard risks against other factors, such as crime risk, salary, and cost of living, when deciding on a new job and place to live. In the game, participants were given a series of 16 job offer scenarios and had to narrow them down through several rounds to a final choice. Each job offer provided information about salary, the location’s hazard risk level, crime rate, cost of living, and other attributes, so players could consider trade-offs between financial and personal safety factors. After choosing a job, participants answered questions about why they made that choice. They were also asked about their reasons for choosing their current location and job, as well as about their experience with prior impacts from natural hazards, and concern relative to hazards where they currently reside. This setup allowed us to examine which factors drove people’s decisions and whether those with geoscience expertise would tolerate more risk than others.

Specific research questions we wished to address with this study are as follows.

  1. How does the level of hazard risk of job offers and final job choices differ between the cohorts? Do geoscientists choose higher risk or lower risk jobs than non-geoscientists.

  2. How do the levels of concern for hazards, experience with hazard impacts, and importance of hazards in choosing their current location residence and job and final job choice compare between cohorts?

  3. How do the post-choice attitudes about hazard concern, experience, and importance of hazards in choosing where to live and work align with the job choices made by these cohorts? Are there differences between geoscientists and non-geoscientists?

  4. What factors drive job choice between these cohorts? Are they the same or different?

  5. Are there thresholds of hazard risk, crime risk, or income that will deter or encourage job acceptance? For example, will jobs in high risk areas (hazard and / or crime) or distant from one’s current location be accepted if salary is high enough? If so, what is the threshold to tip the decision?

  6. Is there a level of hazard risk that will deter job choice?

This report is comprised of the following sections.