Lightning never strikes twice in the same place: How cognitive biases affect our response to floods and storms

Crawford Hollingworth

This article demonstrates how cognitive biases and heuristics impact human responses by using the example of the UK public's response towards the weather seen during the winter of 2013/14.

Lightning never strikes twice in the same place1: How cognitive biases affect our response to floods and storms

Crawford HollingworthThe Behavioural Architects

The weather in the UK this winter has been the wettest since records began and it has attracted a great deal of media and government attention. BBC weather forecaster John Hammond said: "It is stating the obvious but it is remarkable nonetheless. Our data goes back to 1910 – over a hundred years' worth of data and it's smashed it."2Provisional Met Office figures show that more rain has fallen so far this winter...

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