Public perception of risk

Public concern about risk ranges from earthquakes, fires, and hurricanes to asbestos, radon emissions, ozone depletion, toxins in our food and water, and so on. Many of the public s worries are out of proportion, because the fear is eidier overestimated or at times underestimated The risks given die most publicity and attention receive the greatest coiicem, while the ones diat are more familiar and accepted are given less thought. 

A large part of what the public knows about risk comes from the media. Whether it is newspapers, magazines, radio or television, the media provides information about the nature and extent of specific risks. It also helps shape the perception of the danger involved within a given risk. 

Lay people and experts disagree on risk estimates for many eiivironincntal problems. This creates a problem, since die public generally does not trust the experts. This chapter concentrates on how the public views risk and what the future of public risk perception will be. The reader should note that much of diis material, as with die previous Section, applies to liazard risk assessment- a topic that is treated in Chapter 19, Ptirt IV. 

There are various reasons for the differences in risk perception. Govermiient regulators and industry officials look at different aspects in assessing a given risk diaii w ould members of the community. 

No problems rank high in all four types of risk, or relatively low in all four 

No problems rank high in all four t pes of risk, or relatively low in all four Problems that rank relativel high in tluee of the four types, or at least medium in all four, include criteria air pollutiuits, stratospheric ozone depiction, pesticide residues on food, and other pesticide risks (runoff and air deposition of pesticides) 

The preceding section shows the raider abstract, mathematical methods used to present the results of PSA. While the public is a very diverse group, the maiority do not receive information in this fashion but receive it through the news media. It is not the nature of new s to attempt a balanced presentation but to emphasize the unusual. To illustrate, the 

LQCAs with failure of fang-term decay heat removal (LTDHR) Inc. event V 59% 

T Sients with Wlure of powef conversion system PCS) and safety / Injection 23% i ATWS 4% 

3-6 Relative contributions to the Zion arui core melt frequencies. Reprinted with permissto. Electric Power Research institute USA 

Equation 1.4-7 showed that as long as consequences are small enough, that effects are lineai, i.e., not so catastrophic as to affect the perpetuation of civilization, the number of injuries or fatalities in either case are the same whether or not there are many small accidents or a few large accidents. But the public, either because of information sources or for more fundamental reasons does not see it this way. Since the public affects government, public perception is a concern. 

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Another approach to public perception of risk is to simply ask the public. This was the approach of Fischoff ct al., 1977 in which a survey of the League of Women Voters in Eugene, Oregon was taken. Later studies covered 40 college students at the University of Oregon, 25 Eugene businessmen and 15 national experts in risk analysis. 

Section 13.2 Qualitative Risk Scenarios Section 13.3 Quantitative Risk Non-carcinogens Section 13.4 Quantitative Risk Carcinogens Section 13.5 Risk Uncertainties/Liinitations Section 13.6 Risk-Based Decision Making Section 13.7 Public Perception of Risk... 

Section 18.2 Risk Cliaracterization Section 18.3 Cause-Consequence Analysis Section 18.4 Qualitative Hazard Risk Analysis Section 18.5 Quantitative Hazard Risk Analysis Section 18.6 Uncertainties/Limihitions Section 18.7 Public Perception of Risk Section 18.8 Risk Communication... 

Loss of reputation (public perception of risk, public aversion to accidents involving serious injury or fatality)... 

While potential attacks on all modes of transportation are of concern, the Committee on Assessment of Security Technologies for Transportation believes that the U.S. air transportation system continues to have a high priority for counterterrorism resources, both because of its economic importance and because of the intensified public perception of risk following the September 11, 2001, attacks. The air transportation system can also serve as a testbed for the development of defensive technologies and strategies that can subsequently be applied to other transportation modes. 

Risk management is the process of deciding what to do to reduce a known or suspected risk. Risk management balances the various community demands with the scientific information generated from the risk assessment. Public perception of risk is also considered. Table 19.2 characterizes some of the factors that influence perception of risk. An individual s perception of risk is sometimes very different from a risk... 

Psychometric studies of public perception of risk have shown that dangers associated with radioactive contamination are considered the most dreaded and among the least understood hazards (Slovic, 1987). Fear of the risks associated with nuclear power and associated contamination has had important effects on pohcy and commercial decisions in the last few decades. In the US, no... 

It seems apparent that smaller volume products with less market potential than NTA or benzene and gasoline cannot Justify the effort required when public perceptions of risk are greatly different from objectively determined risks. 

Perception of Risk. Fairly recently, it has been appreciated that public perception of risk is important in risk policy (11). Some of the major conclusions that can be drawn about public perception are (12,13) ... 

Public perception of risk, therefore, can vary significantly from that of safety experts. This difference in perception is important to evaluate in a risk management strategy. 

If you make a list of risks in order of how many people they kill each year, and then list them again in order of how alarming they are to the general public, the two lists will be very different. Risk managers in industry and government often deduce from this that public perception of risk is uninformed or irrational. But a better way to conceptualize the problem is that the public defines risk more broadly than the risk assessment profession. 

Despite these very real problems with the new risk management techniques, their symbolism is not wasted on either the industry or the regulator. They both understand that it is one way of publicly demonstrating that they are addressing risk (Clarke, 1999 Hood and Jones, 1996 86), and this is felt hy both to be especially important given that the railway industry is much more in the public view than many other industries and this may well affect public perceptions of risk. But at the same time that more systematic approaches to... 

Incorporating Public Perceptions of Risk into Safety Investment Decision Making... 

Scientists perceptions of risk, one study after the next suggests, can be at serious odds with those held by members of the public. Research commissioned on public perceptions of risk by Britain s Parliamentary Office of Science and Technology (1996), for example, provides a series of pertinent insights. In addition to the actual size of the risk, a variety of different factors are identified which appear to influence public perceptions ... 

The success of such regulation in achieving its objectives depends on reconciling the technical problems of control with the sociological and psychological factors surrounding the individual and public perception of risk. Many of these issues are accentuated in... 

Nevertheless public perception of risk, particularly in the aftermath of a major incident, often calls for the zero risk ideal. However, in general, most people understand that this is not practicable, as can be seen from the following examples of everyday risk of death from various causes ... 

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