Environmental Risks: Perception, Evaluation and Management: Volume 9

Subject:

Table of contents

(15 chapters)

We investigate the mental representation of environmental risks with special emphasis on global change. We propose a multi-level framework of the causal structure of global risks with five causally connected levels: attitudes, activities, emissions, environmental changes and negative consequences for humans. We contrast two approaches in the literature on the mental representation of risks, mental models and psychometric dimensions. Both approaches are viewed from the multi-level framework perspective. We argue that the mental representation corresponds to the multi-level framework and present several empirical studies which support this assumption. Finally, we discuss the relationship between the mental representation of environmental risks and environmental behavior.

Risk communication is difficult even when we know our audience and what we want to say to it. These difficulties multiply for risk communication about the possible health effects of global climate change. Such communication requires detailed attention to the decisions that potential audiences face, faithful reliance on existing research results, and rigorous evaluation. In this paper we provide an overview of this challenge for policy-makers and risk managers, and highlight relevant research findings in risk communication and related fields, including behavioral decision-making, science education and cognitive psychology.

This article concerns media reports on environmental risks and, specifically, the question of how recipients react to typical media reports. To describe the content and quality of media reports, we first discuss the mechanisms of news selection by journalists and present results of a media analysis of newspaper reports on environmental risks. We then present a psychological theory of risk appraisal that includes emotional and behavioral reactions of recipients to typical media reports. The theory is implemented as a computer simulation (Intuitive Thinking in Environmental Risk Appraisal; ITERA). After introducing the ITERA model and its assumptions, empirical support for the model is provided. In doing so, we review previous experiments dealing with recipients' reactions to a single newspaper report and present in more detail a novel experiment that explores the effects of a series of two media reports with controversial information. We conclude by discussing the implications of our work for future research in the domain of risk perception and risk communication.

In recent years, both citizens and scholars have expressed concern about an emerging “risk society.” Many discussions focus on dramatic and widespread forms of risk, but statistical risks of death have dropped significantly in the past century. Both the increase in citizen concerns and the drop in statistical risks may derive from one process — a dramatic increase in specialization. The resultant interdependence has brought many advances, but also an increased potential for recreancy — the failure of institutional actors to carry out their responsibilities with the degree of vigor that is necessary to merit the societal trust they enjoy.

This paper offers a conceptual overview of relationships between the field of risk perception and two other distinct fields of inquiry: the social psychology of attitudes and decisions and research on complex systems, including connectionist simulations of cognitive and social processes. A key notion that unites these approaches is that risk perceptions, as a special case of social attitudes, are organized structures, built upon previous learning, that resist change and guide the interpretation of new information. I argue that many of the principles invoked to explain the performance of complex social systems are applicable to the belief systems of single individuals and vice versa.

The contribution intends showing that theorizing and research on risk is enriched by integrating concepts from the developmental theory of moral judgement. It is argued that in the context of different moral orientations the perception and conceptualization of risk changes. To integrate both research traditions (risk and morality) a common action theory framework is proposed and applied to the theory of moral development and risk conceptualizations. By integrating “levels of actions” into “levels of moral judgment” four “ideal types of everyday morality” are constructed theoretically and tested empirically by means of semi-structured interviews (N = 80) on risks in agricultural settings. The types differ in maturity and complexity. The results demonstrate: (a) the empirical validity of the four types, and (b) that in fact the risk concepts of these types differ. Some similarities to other types of “risk cultures” are discussed and practical consequences (for behavior and education) are elaborated.

Since access to their fishing grounds is open, overexploiting limited resources is the severest risk Tongan fishermen have to face. In showing how this risk is perceived and coped with by local fishermen, the influence of culturally shared models on risk appraisal is analyzed. These models not only determine whether a given situation will be appraised as dangerous, but also have an impact on affective and behavioral reactions. Different cultural models will be compared in order to explain divergent concerns about the status of fish stocks and consequently, divergent measures for dealing with the situation.

In the paper the perception and management of risks by indigenous people from the Andean highlands will be compared with the Western influenced attitudes and activities of development agents, who work in the same region. Differences exist between the indigenous and the Western experts perspective in regard to the spectrum of risk domains which they take into account, their explanation of risks and their coping strategies. In proceeding this intercultural comparison the paper aims at emphasizing the cultural embeddedness of risk perception. It also wants to show which consequences this cultural embeddedness has for the handling of risks.

Debate about the need to increase public confidence in regulation and risk management has focused on the potential for the negative environmental impact of established and emerging technologies. The social context of public distrust is discussed, and related to how environmental risk is portrayed in terms of both technical risk assessment and social representation. It is concluded that greater public involvement in environmental risk decision making is important if further alienation of the public from scientific processes is to be avoided, although such involvement must be evaluated in terms of its methodological utility, acceptability to participants, and impact on policy.

This paper reviews the use of a structured, value-focused decision approach for involving public and expert stakeholders in environmental risk-management consultations. We argue that a structured process provides the foundation for achieving a high-quality, participatory decision making process. We review several key elements of a structured approach to eliciting stakeholders' values, use examples from case studies to illustrate analytical techniques that have proven particularly helpful in linking analysis and deliberation, and discuss results from a small-group experiment that compares the quality and type of participants' input from conventional and structured value elicitations. In a concluding section we note some of the perils, promises, and challenges of using a structured, value-focused approach to incorporate and communicate stakeholder views as part of environmental risk-management decisions.

DOI
10.1016/S0196-1152(2001)9
Publication date
Book series
Research in Social Problems and Public Policy
Editors
Series copyright holder
Emerald Publishing Limited
ISBN
978-0-76230-806-4
eISBN
978-1-84950-114-9
Book series ISSN
0196-1152