Synonyms
Definition
Risk perceptions are beliefs about potential harm or the possibility of a loss. It is a subjective judgment that people make about the characteristics and severity of a risk.
Description
The degree of risk associated with a given behavior is generally considered to represent the likelihood and, given its occurrence, the consequences of harmful effects that result from that behavior. To perceive risk includes evaluations of the probability as well as the consequences of an uncertain outcome. There are three dimensions of perceived risk – perceived likelihood (the probability that one will be harmed by the hazard), perceived susceptibility (an individual’s constitutional vulnerability to a hazard), and perceived severity (the extent of harm a hazard would cause). Risk perceptions are central to many health behavior theories. For example, models that have been developed specifically to predict health behavior such as the health belief model...
Keywords
These keywords were added by machine and not by the authors. This process is experimental and the keywords may be updated as the learning algorithm improves.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution.
References and Further Reading
Ajzen, I. (1985). From intentions to actions: A theory of planned behavior. In J. Kuhl & J. Beckman (Eds.), Action-control: From cognition to behavior (pp. 11–39). Heidelberg: Springer.
Bandura, A. (1977). Self-efficacy: Toward a unifying theory of behavior change. Psychological Review, 84, 191–215.
Epley, N., & Gilovich, T. (2006). The anchoring-and-adjustment heuristic: Why the adjustments are insufficient. Psychological Science, 17, 311–318.
Fischhoff, B., Slovic, P., Lichtenstein, S., Read, S., & Combs, B. (1978). How safe is safe enough? A psychometric study of attitudes towards technological risks and benefits. Policy Studies, 9, 127–152.
Fischhoff, B., Slovic, P., & Lichtenstein, S. (1983). The public vs. ‘the experts’. In V. T. Covello, W. G. Flamm, J. V. Rodricks, & R. G. Tardiff (Eds.), The analysis of actual vs. perceived risks (pp. 235–249). New York: Plenum.
Fishbein, M., & Ajzen, I. (1975). Belief, attitude and intention and behavior: An introduction to theory and research. Reading: Addison-Wesley.
Gilovich, T., Griffin, D., & Kahneman, D. (2002). Heuristics and biases -the psychology of intuitive judgment. New York: Cambridge University Press.
Kahneman, D., & Tversky, A. (1973). On the psychology of prediction. Psychological Review, 80, 237–251.
Leventhal, H., Meyer, D., & Nerenz, D. (1980). The common sense representation of illness danger. Medical Psychology, 2, 7–30.
Plous, S. (1993). The psychology of judgment and decision making. New York: McGraw-Hill.
Rogers, R. W. (1975). A protection motivation theory of fear appeals and attitude change. Journal of Psychology, 91, 93–114.
Rosenstock, I. M. (1966). Why people use health services. The Milbank Memorial Fund Quarterly, 44, 94–127.
Slovic, P. (1992). Perception of risk: Reflections on the psychometric paradigm. In S. Krimsky & D. Golding (Eds.), Social theories of risk (pp. 117–152). Westport: Praeger.
Slovic, P. (2000). The perception of risk. Sterling: Earthscan.
Slovic, P., Fischhoff, B., & Lichtenstein, S. (1980). Facts and fears: Understanding perceived risk). In R. C. Schwing & W. A. Albers (Eds.), Societal risk assessment: How safe is safe enough? (pp. 181–216). New York: Plenum Press.
Slovic, P., Fischhoff, B., & Lichtenstein, S. (1982). Why study risk perception? Risk Analysis, 2, 83–93.
Slovic, P., Fischhoff, B., & Lichtenstein, S. (1985). Characterizing perceived risk. In R. W. Kates, C. Hohenemser, & J. X. Kasperson (Eds.), Perilous progress: Managing the hazards of technology. Boulder: Westview Press.
Tversky, A., & Kahneman, D. (1973). Availability: A heuristic for judging frequency and probability. Cognitive Psychology, 5, 207–232.
Tversky, A., & Kahneman, D. (1974). Judgments under uncertainty: Heuristics and biases. Science, 185, 1124–1131.
Wildavsky, A., & Dake, K. (1990). Theories of risk perception: Who fears what and why? American Academy of Arts and Sciences (Daedalus), 119, 41–60.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Section Editor information
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2018 Springer Science+Business Media, LLC, part of Springer Nature
About this entry
Cite this entry
Darker, C., Whittaker, A.C. (2018). Risk Perception. In: Gellman, M. (eds) Encyclopedia of Behavioral Medicine. Springer, New York, NY. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4614-6439-6_866-3
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4614-6439-6_866-3
Received:
Accepted:
Published:
Publisher Name: Springer, New York, NY
Print ISBN: 978-1-4614-6439-6
Online ISBN: 978-1-4614-6439-6
eBook Packages: Springer Reference MedicineReference Module Medicine
Publish with us
Chapter history
-
Latest
Risk Perception- Published:
- 18 November 2019
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4614-6439-6_866-4
-
Risk Perception
- Published:
- 11 October 2018
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4614-6439-6_866-3
-
Original
Risk Perception- Published:
- 23 September 2016
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4614-6439-6_866-2