Perspectives on Risk Perceptions

Gerald A. Cole and Stephen B. Withey

Risk Analysis, 1981, vol. 1, issue 2, 143-163

Abstract: Drawing on the literature from the fields of cognitive and social psychology, sociology, and political science, we discuss perceptions of risks and benefits, the impact of perceptions and personal preferences on choice and behavior, the question of “socially acceptable” thresholds of risk, and the analytic and descriptive means by which such thresholds might be identified. We hypothesize that existing psychometric methods may be adapted for the scaling of perceived benefit. We review factors hampering the application of formal methodologies in the resolution of controversial public debates, and express doubt about the identification of a socially acceptable threshold of risk. We argue that the emphasis of research in this field should be shifted toward explicating the use of risk and benefit perceptions in the process of personal decision‐making. Finally, we suggest several social science research approaches that may be used to address these issues.

Date: 1981
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

Downloads: (external link)
https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1539-6924.1981.tb01409.x

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:wly:riskan:v:1:y:1981:i:2:p:143-163

Access Statistics for this article

More articles in Risk Analysis from John Wiley & Sons
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Wiley Content Delivery ().