Risk Perception and Dangers

Paper Summary:

This paper explains that risk perception examines the opinions of people when asked to evaluate hazardous activities, substances and technologies, which helps policy-makers by improving communication between them and the public, by directing educational effort and by predicting public responses to new technologies, events and new risk management strategies. The author points out that the fields that have the most important influence in evaluating risk perception are (1) geography because of the recent broadening of focus on technological hazards, (2) sociology and anthropology because risk perception is influenced by friends, family and co-workers, and (3) psychology because of the use of psycho-physical scaling and multivariate analysis techniques to produce quantitative representations or`cognitive maps' of risk attitudes and perceptions, which demonstrate that every hazard has a unique pattern of qualities related to its perceived risk. The paper states that, for the last 30 years, instead of asking how to prevent lead poisoning, the medical community has taken a risk assessment approach, asking, "How much lead is safe for industry to put into children?"

From the Paper:

"The present 'risk balance' situation also does not appear to differentiate between different sorts of risk. For example, a one in 1000 risk imposed on someone is different to a one in 1000 risk accepted by someone. It is often the case that the risk from using a chemical, say, is borne by the population as a whole, whereas the benefits accrue only to a minority. This is inequitable, and a new focus in risk - allowing a product on the market only if it passes a criterion of 'social need' for example, would ensure that inequitable distributions of costs and benefits were reduced."

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