Abstract
Risk communication takes place in a variety of forms, ranging from product warning labels on cigarette packages and saccharin bottles to interactions between officials and members of the public on such highly charged issues as Love Canal, AIDS, and the accident at Three Mile Island. Recent experience has shown that communicating scientific information about health and environmental risks can be exceedingly difficult and is often frustrating to those involved. Government officials, industry executives, and scientific experts often complain that laypeople do not understand technical risk information and that individual and media biases and limitations lead to distorted and inaccurate perceptions of many risk problems. Individual citizens and representatives of public groups are often equally frustrated, perceiving government and industry officials to be uninterested in their concerns, unwilling to take immediate and direct actions to solve seemingly simple and obvious health and environmental problems, and reluctant or unwilling to allow them to participate in decisions that intimately affect their lives. In this context, the media often play the role of transmitter and translator of information about health and environmental risks, but have been criticized for exaggerating risks and emphasizing drama over scientific facts.
The views and conclusions expressed in this paper are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the views and conclusions of the National Science Foundation.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Preview
Unable to display preview. Download preview PDF.
Similar content being viewed by others
Bibliography
Adler, R., and R. D. Pittle, Cajolery or command: Are education campaigns an adequate substitute for regulation?, Yale Journal on Regulation, Vol. 1, 159–193, 1984.
Alcalay, R., The impace of mass communication in the health field. Social Science and Medicine., 17, 87–94, 1983.
Barber, B. The Logic and Limits of Trust. New Brunswick, New Jersey: Rutgers University Press, 1983.
Bingham, G. Resolving environmental disputes: A decade of experience. Washington D.C.: The Conservation Foundation, 1984.
Bowonder, B. Low probability event: a case study in risk assessment. Paper presented at the workshop “Risk analysis in developing countries”, Hyderabad, India, October, 1985.
Burger, E., Health Risks: The Challenge of Informing the Public, Washington, D.C.: The Media Institute, 1984.
Busterud, J. Mediation: The state of the art. Environmental Professional, 1980, 2, 34–39.
Combs, B. and Slovic, P. Newspaper Coverage of Causes of Death. Journalism Quarterly, 1979, 56, 837–843.
Covello, V. T. The Perception of Technological Risks: A Literature Review. Technological Forecasting and Social Change, 1983, 23, 285–297.
Covello, V. T. Uses of social and behavioral research on risk. Environment International, June, 1984.
Covello, V., von Winterfeldt, D., and Slovic, P., Risk Communication: Background Report for the National Conference on Risk Communication. Washington, D.C.: Conservation Foundation, 1986.
Conrad, J. (Ed.) Society, technology, and risk assessment. New York; Academic Press, 1980.
Cormick, G.W. The theory and practice of environmental mediation. Environmental Professional, 1980, 2, 24–33.
Coser, L.A. The functions of social conflict. New York: Free Press, 1956.
Creighton, J.L. Public involvement manual: involving the public in water and power resource discussions. Washington, D.C.: U.S. Government Printing Office, 1980.
Cutter, S. and Barnes, K. Evacuation behavior and Three Mile Island. Disasters, 1982, 6, 116–124.
Delli Priscoli, J., Creighton, J., Dunning, C.M. (ed.), Public involvement techniques: A reader of ten years experience of the Institute for Water Resources. U. S. Army Corps of Engineers, Institute for Water Resources, IWR Research Report 82-R1, May, 1983.
Douglas, M. Purity and danger London: Routledge and Kegan Paul, 1966.
Douglas, M. and Wildaysky, A. Risk and Culture. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1982.
Eagly, A. H. and Chaiken, S. Psychological theories of persuasion. In L. Berkowitz (ed.) Advances in experimental social psychology. 1985.
Earle, T.C. Risk communication: A marketing approach. Unpublished paper, presented at the National Science Foundation/Environmental Protection Agency Workshop on Risk Perception and Risk Communication, Long Beach, CA., Dec. 1984.
Earle, T.C. and Cvetkovich, G. Risk judgement and the communication of hazard information: Toward a new look in the study of risk perception. BH ARC (400/83/017), Battelle Human Affairs Research Centers, Seattle, WA, 1983.
Evans, S.H. and Clarke, P., When cancer patients fail to get well: Flaws in health communication. In R.N. Bostrom (ed.), Communication Yearbook 7., Beverly Hills: Sage, 1983
Fischhoff, B., Slovic, P., Lichtenstein, S., Read, S. and Combs, B. How safe is safe enough? A psychometric study of attitudes towards technological risks and benefits. Policy Sciences, 1978, 8, 127–52.
Fischhoff, B., Slovic, P. and Lichtenstein, S. Weighing the risks. Environment, 1979, 21, 17–10, 32–38.
Fischhoff, B., Watson, S., and Hope, C. Defining risk. Policy Sciences, 1984, 17, 123–139.
Fishbein, M. and Ajzen, I. Belief, attitude, intention and behavior: An introuduction to theory and research. Reading, Mass.: Addison-Wesley, 1975.
Friedman, S. M. Blueprint for breakdown: Three Mile Island and the mass media before the accident. Journal of Communications, 1981, 31, 85–96.
Gibson, M. (ed.) To Breathe Freely: Risk, Consent, and Air. Totowa, New Jersey: Rowman and Allanheld, 1985
Green, C. H. Risk: Attitudes and beliefs. In D. V. Canter (ed.), Behavior in fires. Chichester: Wiley, 1980.
Greene, M., Perry, R. W., and Lindell, M. K. The March 1980 eruptions of Mount St. Helens: citizens perceptions of volcano hazard. Disasters, 1980, 49–66.
Gross, J. L. and Rayner, S. Measuring Culture: A Paradigm for the Analysis of Social Organization. New York: Columbia University Press, 1983.
Hodler, T. W. Residents’ preparedness and response to the Kalamazoo tornado. Disasters, 1982, 2, 44–49.
Johnson, B. and Covello, V. (eds.) The Social Construction of Risk. Boston: Reidel, 1986 (forthcoming).
Johnson, E. J., and Tversky, A. Affect, generalization, and the perception of risk. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 1983, 45, 2031
Kasperson, R. and Kasperson, J., Determining the acceptability of risk: ethical and policy issues, in J. Rogers and D. Bates, eds., Risk: A Symposium, Ottawa: The Royal Society of Canada, 1983.
Keeney, R.L., and Raiffa, H. Decisions with multiple objectives: Preferences and value tradeoffs. New York: Wiley, 1976.
Kiesler, C.A.. Collins, B.E., and Miller, N. Attitude change. New York: Wiley, 1968.
Kunreuther, H., Ginsberg, R. Miller, L., Sagi, P., Slovic, P., Borkan, B., and Katz, N. Disaster Insurance Protection: Public Policy Lessons. New York: Wiley, 1978.
Lagadec, P. Major Technological Disaster. Oxford: Pergamon, 1982.
Levine, A. G. Love Canal: Science, politics, and People. Lexington, Mass.: D.C. Heath, 1982.
Lichtenstein, S., Slovic, P., Fischhoff, B., Layman, M., Coombs, B. Judged frequency of lethal events. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Human Learning and Memory, 1978, 4, 551–578.
Lindell, M., Bolton, P. A., Perry, R. W. Stoetzel, G. A., Martin, J. B., and Flynn, C. B. Planning concepts and decision criteria for sheltering and evacuationm in a nuclear power plant emergency. Technical report No. AIF/NESP-031, Batelle Human Affairs Research Centers, Seattle, WA, June, 1985.
Lindell, M., Perry, W. and Greene, M., Individual response to emergency preparedness planning near Mt. St. Helens, Disaster Management, January- March, 5–11, 1983
Lipset, S. and Schneider, W. The Confidence Gap: Business, Labor and Government in the Public Mind. New York: The Free Press, 1983.
Lowrance, W. Of Acceptable Risk: Science and the Determination of Safety. Los Altos, CA: Kaufman, 1976.
Luce, D. and Raiffa, H. Games and decisions. New York: Wiley, 1957.
Maccoby, N., Farquhar, J., Wood, P., Alexander, J. Reducing the risk of cardiovascular disease: Effects of a community-based campaign on knowledge and behavior. Journal of Community Health, 1977.
Maccoby, N. and Solomon, D.S., Heart disease prevention: community studies. In R.E. Rice and W.J. Paisley (eds), Public Communication Campaigns. Beverly Hills, Ca.: Sage, 1981.
MacLean, D., (ed.) Values at Risk, Totowa, New Jersey: Rowman and Allanheld, 1986.
Mazur, A., Disputes between experts., Minerva. 11, pp. 243–262, 1973
Mazur, A. The dynamics of technical controversy. Washington, D.C.: Communications Press, 1981.
Mazur, A. Media coverage and public opinion on scientific controversies. Journal of Communications Research, 1980, 31, 106–115.
Media Institute, Chemical Risks: Fears, Facts, and the Media, Washington, D.C.: Media Institute, 1985.
Mileti, D. Natural hazard warning systems in the U.S.: a research assessment. Technical Report, Institute for Behavioral Science, University of Colorado, Boulder, CO, 1975.
Mileti, D., Drabek, T. and Haas, E. Human behavior in extreme environments. Boulder, Co.: University of Colorado, 1975.
McGuire, W. J. Attitudes and attitude change. In Lindzey and Aronson (eds.) Handbook of social psychology, 1985.
McNeil, B. J., Pauker, S. G., Sox, H. C. Jr. Tversky, A. On the elicitation of preferences for alternative therapies. The New England Journal of Medicine, 1982, 306, 1259–1262.
Mitchell, R.C. Public Opinion on Environmental Issues: Results of a National Public Opinion Survey. Washington, D.C.: Council on Environmental Quality, 1980.
Morris, L., Mazis, M., and Barofsky, I., (eds.) Product Labeling and Health Risks. Banbury Report 6. Cold Spring Harbor, N.Y.: Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory, 1980.
National Academy of Sciences/National Research Council. Saccharin: Technical assessment of risks and benefits. Committee for a Study on saccharin and food safety policy. Washington, D.C.: National Academy of Sciences, 1978. ( Second Edition.) Sage: Beverly Hills, 1984.
Nelkin, D. (ed.) Controversy: Politics of technical decisions, Beverly Hills: Sage, 1978.
Nelkin, D. and Brown, M. Workers at risk: Voices from the workplace, University of Chicago Press, 1984.
Nilson, L. B. and Nilson, D. C. Resolving the “sooner vs. later” controversy surrounding the public announcement of earthquake predictions. Disasters, 1981, 5, 391–397.
O’Hare, M. Not on my block you don’t: Facility siting and the strategic importance of compensation. Public Policy, 197, 25, 1977, 407–458.
O’Hare, M. Bargaining and negotiation for a conflict resolution. In H. Kunreuther and P. Kleindorfer (eds.) Production, transportation, and storage of hazardous materials. New York: Springer, 1976.
Otway, H., Maurer, D. and Thomas, K. Nuclear power: The question of public acceptance. Futures, 1978, 10, 109–118.
Otway, H. J. Risk perception: A psychological perspective. In M. Dierkes, S. Edwards, and R, Coppock (eds.) Technological risk: its perspective and handling in Europe, Boston: Oelgeschlager, Gunn and Hain, 1980.
Otway, H.J. and v. Winterfeldt, D. Beyond acceptable risk: on the social acceptability of technologies. Policy Sciences, 8, 1982, 127–152.
Pate-Cornell, M.E. Warning systems in risk management. Risk Analysis, Vol. 6, No. 2, June 1986
Peltu, M. Risk communication: The role of the media. In H. Otway (Ed.), Risk and regulation. London: Butterworths, 1985.
Perrow, C. Normal accidents. New York: Basic Books, 1984.
Perry, R. W., Greene, M. R., and Lindell, M. K.. Enhancing evacuation warning compliance: suggestions for emergency planning. Disasters, 1980, 4, 433–449.
Popper, F. The Environmentalists and the LULU ( Local Unwanted Land Use.) Environment, March 1985
Quarantelli, E. and Dynes, R. Response to social crisis and disaster. Annual Review of Sociology, 1977, 3 23–49.
Quarantelli, E. L. Evacuation behavior and problems: Findings and implications from the research literature. Department of Sociology, Disaster Research Center, Ohio State University, Columbus, Ohio, 1980.
Raiffa, H. The art and science of negotiation. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1982.
Renn, O. Man, technology, and risk: A study on intuitive risk assessment and attitudes towards nuclear power, (Report Jul-Sept 115, Julich ). Nuclear Research Center, 1981.
Rice, R.E., and W.J. Paisley (eds.), Public Communication Campaigns., Beverly Hills: Sage, 1981.
Robertson, L. The great seat belt campaign flop. Journal of Communication., 26, pp. 41–45, 1976.
Robertson, L., Kelley, A., O’Neill, B., Wixom, C., Eiswirth, R., and Haddon, W., A controlled study of the effect of television messages on safety belt use. American Journal of Public Health, 64, 1071–1081, 1974
Rogers, E. M. and Sood, R. Mass media operations in a quick-onset natural disaster: Hurricane David in Dominica. Working paper, Annenberg School of Communications, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, 1981.
Rothman, S. Risk and nuclear power: Scientists, journalists, and the public. Public Opinion, 1982, 47–52.
Ruckelshaus, W., Risk in a Free Society, Risk Analysis, Vol. 4, No. 3, September, pp. 157–163, 1984.
Saarinen, T. (ed.) Perspectives on Increasing Hazard Awareness Boulder, Colorodo: Institute of Behavioral Science, 1982.
Sandman, P. M. and M. Paden, At Three Mile Island. Columbia Journalism Review, Vol 18, No. 2, July-August 1979, pp. 43–58.
Sandman, P. Environmental advertising and social responsibility, in D. Rubin and D. Sachs (eds.) Mass Media and the Environment, New York: Praeger, 1973.
Sharlin, H. I. EDB: A case study in the communication of health risk. Unpublished manuscript commissioned by the Office of Policy Agency, Environmental Protection Agency, Washington, D. C., January, 1985.
Shelanski, V., Sills, D. and Wolf, C. The Accident at Three Mile Island. Boulder, Colorado: Westview Press, 1982.
Short, J. The Social Fabric of Risk. American Sociological Review, December, 1984.
Slovic, P., Lichtenstein, S., and Fischhoff, B. Images of disaster: Perceptions and acceptance of risks from nuclear power. In G. Goodman and W. Rowe (eds.) Energy risk management London: Academic Press, 1979.
Slovic, P., Fischhoff, B. and Lichtenstein, S. Facts and fears: Understanding perceived risk. In R. Schwing and W.A. Albers (Eds.), Social risk assessment: How safe is safe enough? New York: Plenum, 1980. Revision in D. Kahneman, P. Slovic and A. Tversky (Eds.), Judgement under uncertainty: Heuristics and biases. Cambridge University Press, 1982, 464–489.
Slovic, P., Fischhoff, B. and Lichtenstein, S. Informing people about risk. In L. Morris, M. Mazis and I. Barofsky (Eds.), Product labeling and health risks, Banbury Report 6. The Banbury Center: Cold Spring Harbor, New York, 1980.
Slovic, P., Fischhoff, B., Lichtenstein, S. Perceived risk: Psychological factors and social implications. In F. Warner and D. H. Slater (Eds.), The assessment and perception of risk. London: The Royal Society, 1981.
Squyres, W.D. Patient Education. New York: Springer, 1980.
Susskind, L.E. The importance of citizen participation and consensus-building in the land use planning process. Cambridge: Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Laboratory of Architecture and Planning, 1978.
Susskind, L. Richardson, J.R., and Hildebrand, K. Resolving Environmental Disputes: Approaches to Intervention, Negotiation, and Conflict Resolution. Cambridge, MA: Environmental Impact Assessment Project, M.I.T., 1978
Sutton, S.R. Fear arousing communications: A critical examination of theory and research. In J.R. Eiser (ed.), Social Psychology and Behavioral Medicine. New York: Wiley, pp. 303–338, 1982.
Tribe, L.H., Corrine, S. Shelling T., and Voss (eds.) When values conflict: essays on environmental analysis, discourse and decision. Cambridge: Ballinger, 1976.
Turner, R. H., Nigg, J. M., Paz, D. H., and Young, B. S. Community response to earthquake threat in Southern California. Institute for Social Science Research, University of California at Los Angeles, Los Angeles, Ca, 1981.
Tversky, A. Kahneman, D. The framing of decisions and the psychology of choice. Science, 1981, 211, 235–271.
Twentieth Century Fund. Science in the streets. New York: Priority Press, 1984.
Vertinsky, I. and Vertinsky, P. Communicating environmental health assessment and other risk information: analysis of strategies. In Kunreuther, H. (ed.) Risk: a seminar series. IIASA-CP-82-S2, International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis, Laxenburg, Austria, 1982, 421–482.
Vlek, C., and Stallen, D.J. Judging risks and benefits in the small and in the large, Organizational Behavior and Human Performance, 28, 1981, 235–271.
United States Environmental Protection Agency, Risk Assessment and Risk Management: Framework for Decision Making., Washington, D.C.: Environmental Protection Agency, December, 1984.
von Winterfeldt, D., John R.S. and Borcherding, K. Cognitive components of risk ratings. Risk Analysis, 1, 1981, 277–287.
von Winterfeldt, D. and Edwards, W. Decision analysis and behavioral research. New York: Cambridge University Press, 1986.
Weinstein, N. D. Why it won’t happen to me: Perceptions of risk factors and susceptibility. Health Psychology, 3, 1984, 431–457.
Weinstein, N.D. Seeking reassuring or threatening information about environmental cancer. Journal of Behavioral Medicine, 2: 125–139, 1979.
Wellborn, S. The potential of mediation for resolving environmental disputes related to energy facilities. American Management Systems, Inc., DOE/EV/10274–1, Dec.’79.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 1987 Plenum Press, New York
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Covello, V.T., von Winterfeldt, D., Slovic, P. (1987). Communicating Scientific Information About Health and Environmental Risks: Problems and Opportunities from a Social and Behavioral Perspective. In: Covello, V.T., Lave, L.B., Moghissi, A., Uppuluri, V.R.R. (eds) Uncertainty in Risk Assessment, Risk Management, and Decision Making. Advances in Risk Analysis, vol 4. Springer, Boston, MA. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4684-5317-1_19
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4684-5317-1_19
Publisher Name: Springer, Boston, MA
Print ISBN: 978-1-4684-5319-5
Online ISBN: 978-1-4684-5317-1
eBook Packages: Springer Book Archive