Are all risk perceptions created equal? Comparing general risk assessments and specific risk assessments associated with climate change
Academic Article
Overview
Research
Identity
Additional Document Info
Other
View All
Overview
abstract
2016 Taylor & Francis Group, LLC. For policy-making to address public risk perceptions effectively, policy-makers must have a clear understanding of the nature of public risks. Public opinion polls regularly solicit perceptions of risk toward a variety of topics. These assessments, though, tend to be general with no specificity offered for a nuanced interpretation. Yet, there is good reason to assume that risk perceptions are not based on the same criteria. If true, policy-makers may be unable to address risks adequately without a better understanding of the drivers of risk perceptions. This project focuses on two primary research questions: (1) Does the public weigh the risk associated with global climate change differently in specific sub-domains? (2) If so, which climate change sub-domains are various members of the public most concerned about when offering a general assessment of global climate change risk? We assess public risk perceptions of climate change in three sub-domainspublic health, economic development, and environmentand find that two of the three sub-domains are predictors of a general assessment of risk.
