Abstract
Managing risk to human health and safety has, over the past two decades, become a dominant theme in government policy, public debate, media attention and academic research. A striking feature of this growth has been the increased role of social scientists (working in perception, judgment and decision-making) in debates that were initially characterized as completely based in science and technology. Examples include applications of risk-perception research (Slovic, 1987), development of normative theories regarding equity in public risk (Keeney, 1980), emergence of risk communication as a field of endeavor and research (National Research Council, 1989), characterization of ‘mental models’ of how lay-people and experts think about health risk decisions (Bostrom et al., 1992), preparation of environmental impact statements (Gregory et al., 1992), and integration of perception into the evaluation of risk-management options (McDaniels et al., 1992). The application of social and decision sciences in problems of risk management has thus been substantial.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Preview
Unable to display preview. Download preview PDF.
References
Arabie, P. and Maschmeyer, C. (1988) Some current models for the perception and judgment of risk. Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes, 41, 300–29.
Armstrong, S. J. and Botzler, R. G. (1993) Environmental Ethics: Divergence and Convergence, McGraw-Hill, New York.
Bostrom, A., Fischhoff, B. and Morgan M. G. (1992) Characterizing mental models of hazardous processes: a methodology and an application to radon. Journal of Social Issues, 48, 85–100.
Cotgrove, S. (1982) Catastrophe or Cornucopia: the Environment, Politics and the Future, Wiley, New York.
Dake, K. (1991) Orienting dispositions in the perception of risk: an analysis of contemporary worldviews and cultural biases. Journal of Cross-Cultural Psychology, 22, 61–82.
Dawes, R. M. (1980) Social dilemmas. Annual Review of Psychology, 31, 169–93.
Fischhoff, B., Lichtenstein, S., Slovic, P. et al. (1981) Acceptable Risk. Cambridge University Press, New York.
Fischhoff, B., Watson, S. and Hope, C. (1984) Defining risk. Policy Sciences, 17, 123–39.
Flynn, J., Burns, W., Mertz, C. K. and Slovic, P. (1992) Trust as a determinant of opposition to a high-level radioactive waste repository: analysis of a structural model. Risk Analysis, 12, 417–30.
Forneil, C. (1982) A Second Generation of Multivariate Methods, Praeger, New York.
Gregory, R., Keeney, R. and von Winterfeldt, D. (1992) Adapting the environmental impact statement process to inform decision makers. Journal of Policy Analysis and Management, 1, 58–75.
Hardin, G. (1968) The tragedy of the commons. Science, 162, 1243–8.
Kaplan, S., and Kaplan, R. (1982) Cognition and Environment: Functioning in an Uncertain World, Praeger, New York.
Keeney, R. L. (1980) Equity and public risk. Operations Research, 28, 527–34.
Kellert, S. R. (1984) Urban American perceptions of animals and the natural environment. Urban Ecology, 8, 209–28.
Lackey, R. T. (1993) Ecological Risk Assessment. Paper presented at Symposium on Critical Issues in Risk Assessment, Tulane, New Orleans.
Lowrance, W. (1976) Of Acceptable Risk. Kaufmann, Los Altos, CA.
McDaniels, T., Kamlet, M. and Fischer, G. (1992) Risk perception and the value of safety. Risk Analysis, 12, 495–503.
Merchant, C. (1992) Radical Ecology, Routledge, New York.
National Research Council (1989) Improving Risk Communication, National Academy Press, Washington, DC.
Rolston, H. (1981) Values in nature. Environmental Ethics, 3, 113–28.
Slovic, P. (1987) Perception of risk. Science, 236, 280–5.
Slovic, P. (1992) Perception of risk: reflections on the psychometric paradigm, in Social Theories of Risk (eds S. Krimsky and D. Golding), Praeger, New York, pp. 117–52.
Slovic, P., Fischhoff, B. and Lichtenstein, S. (1980) Facts and fears: understanding perceived risk, in Societal Risk Assessment: How Safe is Safe Enough (eds R. Schwing and W. A. Albers), Plenum, New York, pp. 181–214.
Slovic, S. H. and Dixon, T. F. (1993) Being in the World: an Environmental Reader for Writers, Macmillan, New York.
Starr, C. (1969) Social benefit versus technological risk. Science, 165, 1232–8.
Stehr, N. and von Storch, H. (1994) The Social Construct of Climate and Climate Change (Report no. 137). Max-Planck-Institute für Meteorologie, Hamburg.
Suter, G. W. I. (1993) Ecological Risk Assessment, Lewis Publishing, Boca Raton, FL.
Travis, C. C. and Morris, J. M. (1992) The emergence of ecological risk assessment. Risk Analysis, 12, 167–8.
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 1996 Chapman & Hall
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Slovic, P., McDaniels, T., Axelrod, L.J. (1996). Perceptions of risk to humans and to nature: a research plan. In: Di Giulio, R.T., Monosson, E. (eds) Interconnections Between Human and Ecosystem Health. Chapman & Hall Ecotoxicology Series. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-009-1523-7_13
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-009-1523-7_13
Publisher Name: Springer, Dordrecht
Print ISBN: 978-94-010-7181-9
Online ISBN: 978-94-009-1523-7
eBook Packages: Springer Book Archive