Read the summary and the most important questions on The political science of risk perception

• 1 Introduction

• How would research on risk perception aid risk analysis and societal decision making according to Paul Slovic et al.?

  (i) improving methods of eliciting opinions about risk
  (ii) providing a basis for understanding and anticipating public responses to hazards
  (iii) improving the communication of risk information among laypeople, technical experts, and policy makers

• 2 Models of risk perception

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• What stays central in the approach of research in cognitive and social psychology (psychometric model)?

  the distinction between risks as they actually are (often equated with 'rational' or expert assessments of risk) and risks as lay people perceive them to be

• What does the symmetric approach imply?

  that the same types of causal arguments should be invoked to explain true beliefs as false ones.

• Why is methodological symmetry essential?

  in order to show comprehensively bow some theories, beliefs or claims come to be accepted as true while others are rejected as false.

• Along which three dimensions do the 3 models of risk perception to public policy; realist, constructivist, and discursive differ?

  (1) their epistemologies, or theories of knowledge, pertaining to risk;
  (2) their understandings of the sources of authoritative knowledge; and
  (3) their prescriptions for improving risk-based decisions

• 3 What makes risk perception political?

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• Why are perceptions of risk inherently political?

  because they carry within them implicit understandings about how to organize and implement policies for managing risk.

• In psychmetric research, how is the parameter of voluntariness located?

   in the minds of individuals, who feel able or unable to control their exposure to risk. People worry less about risks that they can control (drinking, smoking etc.). However, this can also be false.

• To which two counts is any treatment of voluntariness that ignores the role of institutions, suspect?

  1. risks that are perceived as voluntary may in fact be deeply conditioned by social policies and institutional commitments that people take for granted and may no longer consciously acknowledge (advertisement on drinking for instance.)
     
  2. people's historical experience with institutions is known to affect their trust in the risk information they are offered, with important consequences for risk perception
     

• 4 From risk perception to public policy: three models

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• Why is the "realist" model termed like this?

  The realist model is so named because it espouses a realist (or positivist) theory of knowledge. It can be objectively mapped, measured, and controlled. Only experts can change the policy

• Why is the "constructivist" model termed like this?

  takes knowledge about risk to be socially constructed through varied processes of negotiation and conflict resolution in settings ranging from the relatively closed quarters of a research laboratory to the public debate of a regulatory hearing
  Knowledge is most likely to prove authoritative when it is produced through interaction among multiple stakeholders, each interpreting the available information in the light of its own interests and experiences.