Abstract
This study is concerned with how people perceive the risk associated with six areas of modern technology: nuclear power generation, robotics, information technologies, genetic engineering, space defense technology and nuclear weaponry. A questionnaire was prepared, validated, and distributed to samples of graduate level business students in two Western countries which do not always respond in unison to political questions, France and the United States.
The following questions are specifically addressed in this paper:
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• Do the women in the samples of both countries perceive more overall risk than their male counterparts?
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• Does the French sample or the American sample perceive more overall risk?
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• Since the French have accepted nuclear power technology, and the Americans have not, does the French sample perceive less risk in this area than the American sample?
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• Are there contrasting perceptions of the risk associated with the politically controversial space defense initiative of the United States?
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© 1991 Springer Science+Business Media New York
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Hoefer, M.P., Raju, V.S. (1991). Technological Risk Perception: Similarities and Dissimilarities in French and American Samples. In: Garrick, B.J., Gekler, W.C. (eds) The Analysis, Communication, and Perception of Risk. Advances in Risk Analysis, vol 9. Springer, Boston, MA. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4899-2370-7_3
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4899-2370-7_3
Publisher Name: Springer, Boston, MA
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