Re-investigating the Factors Affecting Public Perception of Food-Related Risk A Cross-National Study by the Laddering Method

Risk communication among stakeholders is the essential element behind decisions about risk management measures in the food safety field. However, risk communication has not always been favorably done. Slovic (1999) pointed out that unsuccessful risk management can be traced, in part, to a failure to appreciate the complex and socially determined nature of the concept "risk". The majority of risk perception studies with Socio-psychological models have focused on multi-dimensional characteristics of risk/hazard that have substantial influence on the subjective evaluation of risks. The identified factors of characteristics in these studies, however, cannot suitably explain the characteristics of food related risks. In this study, we re-investigated the factors that influence the perceived magnitude of food-related risks by a laddering method survey in Japan, Korea and the U.S.. The results show that the public have judged the high/low of risk level by 3 categories of factors: perceived risk/hazard characteristics, perceived personal factors and perceived social factors. Severity of damage to health, cause of illness, accumulation in body, benefit and natural/artificial origin were the major factors categorized in perceived risk/hazard characteristics. Perceived personal factors consist of experience, knowledge and association of terrible scene/image. Exposure to information and trust in government/experts were regarded as perceived social factors. A structural model of food-related risk perception might possibly be constructed by adding worldview and general trust to the above 3 factors. This model will be statistically analyzed in the continuous empirical cross-cultural studies

Re-investigating the Factors Affecting Public Perception of Food-Related Risk A Cross-National Study by the Laddering Method

Risk communication among stakeholders is the essential element behind decisions about risk management measures in the food safety field. However, risk communication has not always been favorably done. Slovic (1999) pointed out that unsuccessful risk management can be traced, in part, to a failure to appreciate the complex and socially determined nature of the concept "risk". The majority of risk perception studies with Socio-psychological models have focused on multi-dimensional characteristics of risk/hazard that have substantial influence on the subjective evaluation of risks. The identified factors of characteristics in these studies, however, cannot suitably explain the characteristics of food related risks. In this study, we re-investigated the factors that influence the perceived magnitude of food-related risks by a laddering method survey in Japan, Korea and the U.S.. The results show that the public have judged the high/low of risk level by 3 categories of factors: perceived risk/hazard characteristics, perceived personal factors and perceived social factors. Severity of damage to health, cause of illness, accumulation in body, benefit and natural/artificial origin were the major factors categorized in perceived risk/hazard characteristics. Perceived personal factors consist of experience, knowledge and association of terrible scene/image. Exposure to information and trust in government/experts were regarded as perceived social factors. A structural model of food-related risk perception might possibly be constructed by adding worldview and general trust to the above 3 factors. This model will be statistically analyzed in the continuous empirical cross-cultural studies

Associated Images of the Health Effects of Radioactive Substances in Food and their Origins: Studies in Japan and France

International audienceImage association influences the public’s risk perception. Several studies have investigated these associated images such as on nuclear waste repositories. It has also been reported that image association factor has a significant impact on the perceived risk of health effects of radioactive substances in food released from the Fukushima nuclear power plant accident. The objective of this study was to identify the associated images of that and their origins. The survey was conducted employing focus group interviews in Japan and France, in which the participants were asked to present and describe the pictures representing their risk images. Relatively similar findings were obtained in both countries. Serious image categories (such as ‘severe health effects’, ‘fear of the invisible’, ‘spreading and accumulation’, ‘heightened dread and despair’) and their origins (visual media concerning the victims of atomic bombings in Hiroshima and Nagasaki, as seen during childhood) were identified. For the Japanese case it was found that the effect of the Fukushima accident with low-dose exposure was perceived as extremely serious image and that the image was evoked from the memories of high dose exposure in the past. The cognitive mechanisms and some implications for risk communication were discussed

Achievements of KEKB

The machine commissioning of KEKB started in December 1998 and its operation was terminated at the end of June 2010 to upgrade KEKB to SuperKEKB. In this paper, we summarize the history of KEKB and show the achievements made there