The influence of communication on risk perception and decision making [L'influenza dei processi comunicativi nella percezione del rischio e nella presa di decisione]

In the present article we discuss the cognitive processes involved in risk assessment contexts, with reference to empirical researches (medical risk assessment, framing effect, disjunctive effect). In this respect, it will be shown that contextual and communicative factors help to determine the risk perception, as well as the direction of decision making. The text of every decision-making problem can be considered a conversation between a speaker and a listener. In particular, it is conceived as a cooperative venture: the context, the characteristics of the speaker and the listener, the shared knowledge and the intention of the speaker, all these aspects shape the interpretation of the problem. That is possible through sophisticated, inferential processes of meaning attribution, that are known to be immediate and adaptive. Therefore, pragmatic analysis of a decision-making problem allows us to investigate the interpretation of the problem itself. This perspective have a great impact on the theory of thought and, consequently, on the explanation of errors in decision making, and the concept of rationality.