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Small Group Studies of Regulatory Decision‐Making for Power‐Frequency Electric and Magnetic Fields
Author(s) -
Hester Gordon,
Morgan M. Granger,
Nair Indira,
Florig Keith
Publication year - 1990
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.1539-6924.1990.tb01043.x
Subject(s) - sophistication , structuring , framing (construction) , psychology , risk analysis (engineering) , social psychology , computer science , actuarial science , business , engineering , finance , sociology , social science , structural engineering
Three groups of lay opinion leaders were used in a group role‐playing decision exercise designed to explore problems in public risk management decision‐making. The application domain was possible risks from the 60 Hz electric and magnetic fields associated with high‐voltage power transmission lines. While there were differences in the make‐up and dynamics of the three groups, the structure and substantive content of the tasks undertaken dominated intergroup variation in terms of the factors that were most important to group members' decisions. The groups displayed sophistication in their identification of decision attributes and in many of the arguments they advanced, but experienced difficulties in structuring and making trade‐offs and decisions. The groups were not good at normalizing or otherwise manipulating quantitative information, and used it largely in the form it was received. Upper‐bound risk estimates were treated operationally in most group discussions as expected values. Several kinds of strong framing effects were observed in the use of cost and risk information. Specific quantitative results obtained must be treated with care but may provide a starting place for further work on the acceptable level of transmission line risk.