[Cognition and emotion in the evaluation of accidents: modelling and empirical studies]

Lay people's evaluation of environmental risks is often based on mass media descriptions of single disastrous events. This article analyzes the cognitive and emotional reactions towards those reports. We assume that characteristic features of the events determine the cognitive evaluation and the rise of the emotions anger and sadness. An intuitive, spontaneous, and schema-based evaluation process is postulated that entails a coherent perception and appraisal of an event. The theoretical assumptions are formally specified and implemented in the computer model ITERA (Intuitive Thinking in Environmental Risk Appraisal). In three experimental studies, we presented manipulated descriptions about negative environmental events. The effects of three experimental variables (knowledge about the riskiness of an action, higher goal of the actor, voluntarity of the actor) were compared with the model's predictions. For anger we found a good correspondence between the empirical results and the model's data. The predicted coherence effects of the cognitive appraisal were confirmed to a great extent. Results for sadness did not conform with model predictions.