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Baruch Fischoff Selected to Advise on Homeland Security
Science and Technology Committee
Geoff Mumford, Director of Science Policy, attended the inaugural meeting of the
Homeland Security Science and Technology Advisory Committee (HSSTAC) on February
26. Shrouded in great secrecy and held in a remote location, the 3 hour open
session drew about 2 dozen members of the public to find out who had been
appointed to the 20 member advisory committee.
We were extremely pleased to see Baruch Fischhoff, the only behavioral
scientist, had been appointed to the HSSTAC. Loyal SPIN readers may recall that
we initiated meetings between Baruch and the Advisory Committee staff almost two
years ago, after Dr. Fischhoff's participation in our first counter-terrorism
conference at the FBI Academy. Following an introduction to Frank Ciluffo,
fellow conference attendee and then Special Assistant to the President for
Homeland Security, (who was then leading the effort to develop the Homeland
Security Advisory Council when homeland security was still in "Office"
status), we coordinated meetings with Baruch and Frank at the Homeland Security
Office. Dr. Fischoff continued serving as a willing APA spokesperson for homeland
security science and technology by meeting with the majority staff of the Senate
Commerce, Science and Transportation Committee (view picture), and the majority
staff of the House Science Committee (view picture), coauthoring APA's official
comments on the Homeland Security Advisory System (HSAS) (read comments), and
presenting at our Capitol Hill briefing on Disaster Preparedness (read about
briefing). The HSSTAC was chartered in the Homeland Security Act of 2002 (P.L.107-296, see
link below for charter language) and will advise the Director of the Department
of Homeland Security's Science and Technology Directorate.
The open session allowed members to provide brief introductions and highlight
issues they thought would be important for HSSTAC to address. Dr. Fischhoff was
invited to go first and identified 3 main issue areas: 1) Risk communications to
help the public understand what they are up against; 2) development of
behaviorally realistic plans in preparation for, or in the event of, a terrorist
attack; and 3) how human judgment is and should be brought to bear on risk data
analysis. During the remainder of the open session, Chuck McQueary outlined the mission
and goals of HSSTAC, which were pretty much identical to his testimony before
the House Subcommittee on Cybersecurity, Science, and Research & Development
of the Select Committee on Homeland Security the day before (see link below for
testimony). The work of the Advisory Committee will be divided across 4 subcommittees that
were not discussed in the public session, but Dr. Fischhoff said later he'd been
assigned to one whose paraphrased function is public relations. During Q&A,
Baruch took the opportunity to discuss one of his pet concerns (related in part
to the work he does for the Environmental Protection Agency), which is
developing clean-up standards that would help reassure the public about the
risks associated with moving back into an area contaminated by a radiological
device (i.e., a dirty bomb), a troubling scenario that was depicted last year in
a NOVA special (see link below). When I asked him to comment on his appointment and the role of psychology as it
applies to the S&T mission of DHS, Dr. Fischhoff said: "I see three roles for psychological research in creating the science and
technology needed to protect homeland security. One is ensuring that plans and
models make behaviorally realistic assumptions -- for example, about how people
will respond in crisis situations or how well they will be able to use safety
equipment. A second role is improving the role of human judgment in the
decision-making process, recognizing that experts are people, too. We need to
understand their limits, both to help them to do a better job and to know how
much faith to put in their work. The third role is creating clearer
communication between officials and citizens. Citizens need, and want, to
understand the risks that they face and the tradeoffs that policies make between
safety, cost, privacy, and other outcomes. Officials need to know what citizens
want from them and are willing to contribute to the cause. Although my own
field, judgment and decision making, is central to these issues, I think that
many areas in psychology have a great deal to contribute. I hope to be able to
represent them, as well as the social and behavioral sciences more
generally."
Read
the DHS press release on the HSSTAC appointments
Read
the HSSTAC Charter
Read
Chuck McQueary’s testimony before the House Subcommittee on
Cybersecurity, Science, and Research & Development
View
the NOVA special
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