Reflections on Risk Perception and Policy^1,2

Abstract

This paper looks critically at the emergence and present status of risk analysis with the aim of assessing its usefulness for policy decisions on risk regulation and the acceptability of risk-bearing innovations. The authors adopt a personal narrative to illustrate their own involvement in risk research and to comment on empirical trends that have resulted in the current fashion for risk workshops. The second part of the paper confronts specific issues in risk research. These are not new problems-indeed several of the questions asked have been taken directly from a list used to structure a recent risk seminar; but the stand taken here is rather less conciliatory than is usual when these issues are discussed. The pessimistic message of this paper is that risk research, especially in the area of risk perception, is being used as a panacea with which to attempt to remedy what are essentially societal and political matters. Risk research is being used as a tool in a discourse which is not concerned with risks per se, nor with the cognitive processes by which people misperceive the risks of new technologies, but whose hidden agenda is the legitimacy of decision-making institutions and the equitable distribution of hazards and benefits. The authors take a subjectivist view, not just of risk but in general, and query the natural science approach to risk perception, with its assumption that universal dimensions of risk perception can be discovered and used in policy-making and setting regulatory standards. Although it is possible to collect subjective data on the wider meanings that risks and benefits associated with technological innovations have for lay publics, 'the interpretation and recombination of these data into useful policy guidelines is seen as fraught with technical and, above all, political problems.

Buscando el riesgo aceptable: sobre los métodos de análisis de riesgos empleados en la elaboración de políticas públicas

“…es simplemente adoptar una de las opciones científicas presentadas), y ver el análisis del riesgo como un instrumento político (Otway y Thomas 1982).…”

Understanding risk governance: Introducing sociological neoinstitutionalism and foucauldian governmentality for further theorizing

“…Research shows that risk perceptions not only vary in terms of the activity or domain of interest, for instance smoking or nuclear power plant safety (Slovic 1992), they are also influenced by contextual factors such as the extent of "dread" that people understand the consequences could be and the number of people involved (Slovic, Fischhoff, and Lichtenstein 1982). In addition, people's beliefs and worldviews about the causes of risk, as well as their demographics (for example, sex and race) and professional commitments, as a scientist or lawyer (Slovic 1999) also influence their risk perceptions (Otway and Thomas 1982).…”

Do the Right Thing”: Innovation Diffusion and Risk Dimensions in the Passage From Conventional to Organic Agriculture

“…• risk perceptions -the decision maker's assessment of the risk inherent in a situation [43], defined in terms of the decision maker's labelling of situations, probabilistic estimates of the extent and controllability of risk and the confidence in those estimates; they may have a relevant role in decision maker's behaviour because they may drive to deny uncertainty, overestimate or underestimate risks, wrong judgements and knowledge and limit the individual ability to perform under risk conditions. In general terms, a decision maker's behaviour coping with a risky decision is the result of the contemporary and often conflicting action of emotional forces (fear, anxiety, passion reasons and motivations, etc.)…”