General knowledge about climate change, factors influencing risk perception and willingness to insure

In two empirical surveys in Germany the link between the information respondents have about climate change and their risk perception of the phenomenon was analysed. We found that a better understanding of the effects of climate change might lead to a decrease of the perceived hazard. In contrast, a high self-declared knowledge about climate change might correspond with higher risk perception. Further factors affecting the risk perception of climate change are gender, experience of extreme weather events and trust in external aid. Surprisingly, information campaigns based on scientific facts are not effective for increasing risk perception and willingness to insure. Higher risk perception might induce higher interest in precautionary measures like insurance. --Climate Change,Knowledge Illusion,Insurance,Risk Perception,Information,Psychometric paradigm

Risk Perception and Drug Safety Evaluation

The authors present a Risk communication framework based on a survey of empirical research concerning public Risk perceptions. They also apply it to the area of pharmaceutical regulation to suggest more effective regulatory strategies

World Views, Political Attitudes and Risk Perception

Dr. Sjöberg questions the Cultural Theory approach to evaluating variance in risk perception. He also presents the results of a survey using elements of that and other scales to help explain individual differences in risk perception

Social Influence on Risk Perception During Adolescence.

Adolescence is a period of life in which peer relationships become increasingly important. Adolescents have a greater likelihood of taking risks when they are with peers rather than alone. In this study, we investigated the development of social influence on risk perception from late childhood through adulthood. Five hundred and sixty-three participants rated the riskiness of everyday situations and were then informed about the ratings of a social-influence group (teenagers or adults) before rating each situation again. All age groups showed a significant social-influence effect, changing their risk ratings in the direction of the provided ratings; this social-influence effect decreased with age. Most age groups adjusted their ratings more to conform to the ratings of the adult social-influence group than to the ratings of the teenager social-influence group. Only young adolescents were more strongly influenced by the teenager social-influence group than they were by the adult social-influence group, which suggests that to early adolescents, the opinions of other teenagers about risk matter more than the opinions of adults

Terrorism Risk Concern in Europe

We explore whether differences of terrorism risk perception across all European countries reflect their underlying differences in terrorism risk, which we decompose into a long term and innovation component. We employ longitudinal country-level data on terrorism risk concern and our modeling approach is motivated by the Bayesian framework. We conclude that the observed risk perception variation is significantly explained by the long term terrorism countries face, while the cyclical part of terrorism activity does not affect risk perception.

Simulating the Formation of Risk Perception

The damages of smoking on health have been taken more and more seriously, most relative studies focus on fields in sociology, psychology, public health or economy. The act of smoking itself satisfies the smoker's need for consumption, but at the same time produces negative effect such as smoking related damages. When making a decision whether to smoke or not or how much to smoke, the decision itself is hugely swayed by the smoker's own perception of risk regarding this matter. Whenever there is uncertainty involved, the decision made regarding whether to carry out the act i.e. smoking or not hugely depends upon the amount of risk perceived by each individual. Sex, age, education, health awareness and other factors affect how a perception is formed, in other words, how a "belief" is formed, and the forming process itself is a complex and intricate learning/evolving process. In this study, an agent-based computational model is employed to look at how a risk perception is formed and how the decision to smoke is made. This system can be used to observe the dynamic between anti-smoking policy and decision makers, and the resulting observation can serve as useful reference when the government is making or executing relative policies.Risk Perception, Smoking, Learning

Gender Differences in Risk Perception: Broadening the Contexts

The author surveys literature on the effect of gender on risk perception