CRED Graduate Student Speaks at Volcanism in the American Southwest Conference

PhD student Katherine Thompson represented CRED at last month’s Volcanism in the American Southwest Conference, presenting an invited talk entitled, “The View From Social Science: How people will think and behave during an extended crisis with large uncertainties.” The meeting, held in Flagstaff, Arizona on October 18-19th, brought together nearly 100 volcanologists, seismologists, monitoring experts, emergency managers, and land-use planners from within and outside of the US Geological Survey.

The purpose of the meeting was two-fold: to establish a consensus on what a volcanic event in Arizona or New Mexico would most likely entail (yes, the American Southwest IS considered volcanically active; but no, an eruption is very unlikely); and to begin developing plans for how to prepare for a possible volcanic event, and how best to inform and educate the public.

As the only psychologist at the conference, Katherine drew on her past life in seismology and volcanology (a bachelor’s degree in earth and planetary science) to make connections between the geological and geophysical topics of the day and the research that CRED and other labs have done on how people perceive risk and react to different presentations of hazard information.