Dr. Branden B. Johnson studies risk perception, risk communication, and risk policy regarding natural, technological, and social hazards as a Senior Scientist at ORI’s Decision Research Center. His research reflects diversity in both his social science education (Environmental Values and Behavior; Environmental Affairs; Geography) and his earlier job history (e.g., tenure-track, tenured, or adjunct professorships in geography, human ecology, public health, and science, technology and society; state government research scientist and regulator of drinking water safety). His work has covered such topics as black bears, air pollution, terrorism, wetlands, cancer clusters, and Ebola, Zika, and COVID-19, plus more general issues such as trust in hazard managers, responses to disputing scientists, and evaluation of benefits of life-prolonging regulations.

Current research projects, among others, include relations among, and antecedents and consequences of, different risk perception measures; consumer and public views of gene drives to control agricultural pests; and how recovery of lifeline infrastructure systems (water, wastewater, electricity, transportation, telecommunications) after the potential forthcoming Cascadia earthquake in the Pacific Northwest can be affected by overlaps in critical equipment and needs between these systems, and how consumers’ (households, businesses, and nonprofits) expectations about the speed of recovery of these lifeline infrastructures could affect their preparedness.