Measuring feelings about choices and risks: The Berlin Emotional Responses to Risk Instrument (BERRI).

Area of Science:

• Psychology
• Decision Science
• Risk Communication

Background:

• Assessing emotional responses to risk is crucial for understanding decision-making.
• Existing instruments may be lengthy or lack comprehensive validation across diverse contexts.
• The need for a brief, validated measure of affective reactions to risk is apparent.

Purpose of the Study:

• To introduce and validate the Berlin Emotional Responses to Risk Instrument (BERRI), a brief measure of positive and negative feelings about risks.
• To evaluate the BERRI's performance against existing measures and its predictive validity in various risk scenarios.
• To assess the BERRI's sensitivity to framing effects and its cross-cultural applicability.

Main Methods:

• The study involved seven diverse studies with 2120 adults across three countries.
• The Berlin Emotional Responses to Risk Instrument (BERRI) was developed and validated.
• Predictive validity was tested in risky choice studies and during global health crises (Ebola, COVID-19).

Main Results:

• The BERRI robustly estimated positive (assured, hopeful, relieved) and negative (anxious, afraid, worried) anticipatory affective reactions.
• The BERRI outperformed a 14-item assessment and uniquely tracked cancer screening costs/benefits.
• BERRI responses were sensitive to emotion-related framing manipulations across cultures and during pandemics, demonstrating stability over two weeks.

Conclusions:

• The Berlin Emotional Responses to Risk Instrument (BERRI) is a novel, brief, and efficient tool for measuring emotional responses to risk.
• The BERRI demonstrates strong psychometric properties, including predictive validity and cross-cultural applicability.
• While overall affect can be estimated, unique positive and negative affect uniquely influence choices, suggesting tailored risk communication strategies may be beneficial.