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Although philosophers and social scientists have
a long history of raising questions about the
appropriate relationship between science and
wider society, such questioning is more widespread today as
policymakers and members of the public face controversies
over potential risks to the environment, to their health
and financial futures, and from the introduction of new
technologies. Disputes that emerged in the 1960s and 1970s
over the risks of chemicals and nuclear power have been
followed by concerns in some countries over industrial and
transport-related pollution, genetically modified (GM) crops
and foods, and latterly so-called ‘upstream’ technologies
such as nanotechnology and climate engineering. Although
mathematical descriptions of risk focus upon establishing
measures of ‘uncertainty’ and ‘outcome severity’, Kates and
Kasperson 1 offer a very different conceptualization in terms
of “threats to people and things that they value”. What
people care about in relation to risks consequently affects
how they view them, and whether they are acceptable or
not.
If we take this broader concept of risk as our starting
point then it inevitably sets an epistemological and
ontological dilemma, being at once an expression of possible
material damage such as deaths, injuries and losses, and
at the same time a socially constructed concept in that
our knowledge of risk — even that derived from expert
assessments — is always mediated through social and
psychological lenses and judgement processes 2 . A social
sciences approach to risk and risk perceptions therefore
aims to map out the social and contextual considerations
through which people come to comprehend and respond to
what they believe is hazardous or not, and helps us to begin
to understand why some risks deemed highly significant
through expert analysis and risk assessment are seen as
unimportant by ordinary people, or vice versa 3 .
The Psychometric Paradigm
Research on individual risk perceptions and risk
communication first developed during the 1970s and 1980s
in response to rising environmental and safety concerns
amongst Western populations in particular about industrial
chemicals and nuclear technologies. Psychologists of the
time aimed to gain an empirical understanding of some of
the judgements and beliefs underlying a number of highly
visible and complex social and public policy issues. Since
What people care about
in relation to risks affects
how they view them,
and whether they are
acceptable or not.
then, risk perception and communication research has
embraced a diverse set of both disciplines (anthropology,
sociology, human geography) and hazards (electromagnetic
fields, air pollution, food hazards, climate change, bio- and
nanotechnologies, climate engineering). Although the
objectives of the researchers are primarily theoretical and
empirical, their work touches on significant public policy
issues surrounding conflicts over particular environmental,
health or technological developments 4 .
During the decades spanning the mid-1970s to the mid-
1990s, risk perception research was framed either within a
cognitive science or a socio-cultural approach, with relatively
little interaction between the two. More recent theorising
has stressed an increased awareness of and interest in
more interpretative approaches which are sensitive to
the symbolic qualities of risk perceptions as grounded in
context, and which seek to step beyond simple oppositions
such as ‘cognition’ or ‘culture’.
Early risk perception studies were dominated by the
experimental psychology investigations of Kahneman and
Tversky into the mental heuristics or short-cuts which
people use in estimating probabilities and rapidly making
decisions (see Chapter 7). Over time, some of that work
migrated from the psychology laboratory into the field, to
encompass study of a richer set of issues within the socalled
‘psychometric paradigm’ 5 . This work, using primarily
quantitative survey methodology, demonstrated that
perceived risks were sensitive to a range of qualitative
factors, including the controllability of an activity, the fear it
evoked, its catastrophic potential, voluntariness of exposure,
BOX 1
Qualitative Characteristics of Perceived
Risk. Adapted from the Department of
Health’s Communicating About Risks to
Public Health: Pointers to Good Practice.
Revised Edition. (London: The Stationery
Office, 1998).
All other things being equal, risks are generally
more worrying (and less acceptable) if
perceived:
• to be involuntary (e.g. exposure to pollution)
rather than voluntary (e.g. dangerous sports or
smoking)
• as inequitably distributed (some benefit while
others suffer the consequences)
• as inescapable by taking precautions.
• to arise from an unfamiliar or novel source
• to result from man-made, rather than natural
sources
• to cause hidden and irreversible damage, e.g.
through onset years after exposure