Agency communication, community outrage, and perception of risk: Three simulation experiments

Journal Article · Wed Dec 01 04:00:00 EST 1993 · Risk Analysis; (United States)

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1539-6924.1993.tb01321.x· OSTI ID:5062239

Sandman, P M ^[1]; Miller, P M ^[2]; Johnson, B B ^[3]; Weinstein, N D ^[2]

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1. 54 Gray Cliff Rd., Newton Centre, MA (United States)
2. Rutgers Univ., New Brunswick, NJ (United States)
3. New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection and Energy, Trenton, NJ (United States)

Three experimental studies were conducted employing hypothetical news stories to compare the effects on reader risk perceptions of two situations: when agency communication behavior was reported to be responsive to citizens' risk concerns, vs. when the agency was reported to be unresponsive. In the first two experiments, news stories of public meeting filled with distrust and controversy led to ratings indicating greater perceived risk than news stories reporting no distrust or controversy led to ratings indicating greater perceived risk than news stories reporting no distrust or controversy, even though the risk information was held constant. This effect appeared clearly when the differences in meeting tone were extreme and subjects made their ratings from their recall of the stores, but it was much weaker when the differences were moderate and subjects were allowed to go back over the news stories to help separate risk information from conflict information. In the third experiment, news stories about a spill cleanup systematically varied the seriousness of the spill, the amount of technical information provided in the story, and the agency behavior and resulting community outrage. The outrage manipulation significantly affected affective and cognitive components of perceived risk, but not hypothetical behavioral intentions. Seriousness and technical detail had very little effect on perceived risk. 42 refs., 4 tabs.

• OSTI ID: 5062239
• Journal Information: Risk Analysis; (United States), Journal Name: Risk Analysis; (United States) Vol. 13:6; ISSN 0272-4332; ISSN RIANDF
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

29 ENERGY PLANNING, POLICY, AND ECONOMY
290202* -- Energy Planning & Policy-- Sociology-- (1992-)
290300 -- Energy Planning & Policy-- Environment
Health
& Safety
550100 -- Behavioral Biology
59 BASIC BIOLOGICAL SCIENCES
ATTITUDES
BEHAVIOR
DATA
EXPERIMENTAL DATA
HUMAN POPULATIONS
INFORMATION
NUMERICAL DATA
POPULATIONS
PUBLIC ANXIETY
PUBLIC INFORMATION
PUBLIC RELATIONS
RISK ASSESSMENT
SIMULATION
SOCIOLOGY