Informing and educating the public about risk
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Date
1986
Authors
Slovic, Paul
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
Abstract
The objective of informing and educating the public about risk issues seems easy to attain in principle, but, in practice, may be difficult to accomplish. This paper attempts to illustrate why this is so. To be effective, risk communicators must recognize and overcome a number of obstacles that have their roots in the limitations of scientific risk assessment and the idiosyncrasies of the human mind. Doing an adequate job of communicating means finding comprehensible ways of presenting complex technical material that is clouded by uncertainty and inherently difficult to understand. The problems may not be insurmountable, however, if designers of risk information programs are sensitive to the difficulties.
Description
42 pages
Keywords
Risk communication, Risk perception, Risk management, Risk information
Citation
Slovic, P. (1986). Informing and educating the public about risk. Risk Analysis, 4, 403-415.