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Conventional Wisdom on Risk Communication and Evidence from a Field Experiment
Author(s) -
Johnson F. Reed,
Fisher Ann
Publication year - 1989
Publication title -
risk analysis
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.972
H-Index - 130
eISSN - 1539-6924
pISSN - 0272-4332
DOI - 10.1111/j.1539-6924.1989.tb01241.x
Subject(s) - risk communication , risk perception , perception , task (project management) , field (mathematics) , risk analysis (engineering) , point (geometry) , psychology , applied psychology , computer science , data science , cognitive psychology , engineering , medicine , geometry , mathematics , systems engineering , neuroscience , pure mathematics
A recent comprehensive review of the literature identified a number of facts and principles governing risk communication. This paper evaluates several of these propositions using recent evidence from a field experiment in communicating the risks from radon in homes. At this point in the research, data relates primarily to the response of risk perceptions to different information treatments and different personal characteristics. The effect of various causal factors is sensitive to the particular test of risk perception applied. No information treatment was clearly superior for all tasks. An important implication of these findings is that risk communicators must determine what specific task or tasks the information program should enable people to do.