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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.

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.

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.

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.

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.