13 risk perception Flashcards
what is a hazard?
“events of physical conditions that have the potential to cause fatalities, injuries, property damage, infrastructure damage, agricultural loss, damage to the environment, interruption of business, or other types of harm or loss”
-inherent ability of a substance to cause an adverse effect under defined conditions of exposure (i.e. its intrinsic toxic properties)
-hazard is always there but risk can be mitigated
what is a risk?
risk is the product of probability (likelihood) and consequences of an event
-risk carries numerical values of 0 to 1, but in practice, it is never zero
-an activity that results in 2.4 deaths per 10,000 people exposed per year (e.g. the annual risk of dying in a motor vehicle crash if you live in the USA) is expressed as a risk of 2.4 x 10^-4
what is the definition of risk perception?
-how individuals think and feel about the risks they face, is an important determinant to protective behavior
-people need to be aware of an existing health risk and need to feel personally at risk
what do we need to understand about risk perception?
1) how people construde and evaluate health risks in general (general risk perception)
2) how they gauge their own personal risk (personal risk perception)
3) how they react to the information indicating that they are personally at risk
what is an example of showing how risk perception is personal?
what are the aspects of risk perception?
-perceived control
-previous experiences
-bounded rationality
-family concerns
-analytical way of thinking
-trust
-the type of hazard
what is perceived control?
do people believe that they can control the situation?
-way more people are scared to fly, and less are scared to drive because they know how to drive
-way more risky to drive cars than fly
what is previous experiences?
have people handled similar risks in the past?
-could be less scary to an experienced person
what is bounded rationality?
assume for a moment that there is a professional athlete just outside your door. Is that person bigger than you, the same size, or smaller?
-limits on what you knew
-how much time you had before having to decide
-day-to-day: making decisions rapidly, before all the facts are in
what are family concerns?
people in larger families usually consider the risk of harmful impacts to be higher due to their concern for familial safety
-not as much for single people
what is the analytical way of thinking?
-as individuals or as a group, people will have their own judgements of the probability of a hazard occurring, probability of negative impacts, severity of the impacts
-individuals highly numerate (educated) are more likely to retrieve and use numerical principles in decision-making (how many flights that are safe vs ones that crash)
-less likely to incorporate irrelevant information
what is trust?
people’s sense of trust in their government, hazard experts, and family affects the way they receive risk messages and the decisions made
what is the type of hazard?
-some populations expect certain hazards to occur, thus making it predictable
-unforeseen hazards are more difficult for that population to adjust to
-people are more concerned about the severity of negative impacts, not how likely the impacts are to occur
