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Hazard images, evaluations and political action: The case of toxic waste incineration

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Communicating Risks to the Public

Part of the book series: Technology, Risk, and Society ((RISKGOSO,volume 4))

Abstract

Effective communication about risks depends on having a valid model of how audiences react to risk information. Recent research, especially experimental psychology studies, suggests among other things that individual reactions are heavily dependent upon cognitive processes in general and imaginative processes in particular (Slovic 1987). Faced with the task of judging the risks of never, or rarely, experienced events, the individual imagines possible states and makes evaluations based on these generated images.

We wish to thank Roger Kasperson, Pieter Jan Stallen and Arie Rip for their useful comments on an earlier version of this paper.

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Authors
  1. George Cvetkovich
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  2. Timothy C. Earle
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Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. C.E.N.T.E.D., Clark University, Worcester, MA, USA

    Roger E. Kasperson

  2. Institute for Environment and Systems Analysis, Amsterdam, The Netherlands

    Pieter Jan M. Stallen

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© 1991 Kluwer Academic Publishers

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Cvetkovich, G., Earle, T.C. (1991). Hazard images, evaluations and political action: The case of toxic waste incineration. In: Kasperson, R.E., Stallen, P.J.M. (eds) Communicating Risks to the Public. Technology, Risk, and Society, vol 4. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-009-1952-5_15

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-009-1952-5_15

  • Publisher Name: Springer, Dordrecht

  • Print ISBN: 978-94-010-7372-1

  • Online ISBN: 978-94-009-1952-5

  • eBook Packages: Springer Book Archive

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