History
Glossary
Risk psychology
The branch of psychology studying perceptions, attitudes, decisions and behaviours towards risk and how humans and animals take risks.Decision risk
Risks that are associated with the human decision-making process. The risk lies in the way in which decisions are made because humans do not always act rationally.
Oxford Risk is a spin-out company of the University of Oxford. The company was founded in 2002 by three prominent academics: Professor Sir John Krebs, Professor Alex Kacelnik and Dr. Edward Mitchell. Between them, they have published hundreds of scientific research papers in behavioural ecology, behavioural economics, risk psychology and decision-making. Oxford Risk strives to help clients improve results by enabling them to make better informed decisions. We do this by providing innovative solutions that address risk.
The term ‘risk’ means different things to different people. Here is how we define and manage risk in the context of our realm of expertise in risk psychology and decision-making:
‘Whilst some actions have only one possible consequence, others may have a range of consequences with different likelihoods. In these cases, the correct judgment requires the evaluation of all the range of possible consequences, and not simply the average or most likely ones. In making a choice between alternative courses of action, one must weigh the possible consequences alongside the probabilities of each ensuing outcome. The ability to respond to all possible outcomes is a crucial component of success in all walks of life, including business.’
That is what we call ‘putting the calculation into calculated risk’.