Risk Communication Revisited and Future Developments

Abstract

Increasingly, risk communication gains ground as a tool to reduce or to dispel the public’s feelings of insecurity and fear with respect to risks. However, risk communication seems to be in a dilemma. On the one hand, with various objectives in mind, it is seen as a suitable method to transfer risk information. On the other hand, in most cases the effects of risk communication fall short of the usually sanguine expectations. Sometimes risk communication is found to have no effect, sometimes the effects are too small to justify the amount of effort invested, and sometimes risk communication has been found to have contrary effects when the public reacts with outrage or when feelings of insecurity toward a particular risk increase.