How the Presence of a Risk Ladder, Time Interval Comparison, and Smoking Comparison Affect Risk Perception.

Abstract

The objective of this study is to increase the knowledge available on the relative effectiveness of risk ladders as a presentation format for explaining risk magnitudes to the public. An experiment was conducted to test the hypotheses that an individual's risk perception varies with the presence of a risk ladder, time interval comparison, and smoking comparison. Subjects were AFIT Professional Continuing Education students, asked to assume a particular level of a health hazard in their homes, to read a brochure explaining the hazard, and then to complete a questionnaire. Results demonstrated that subjects exposed to a graphical risk ladder perceived lower levels of risk than subjects not exposed to a risk ladder. Also, the study found that time interval and smoking comparisons did not significantly affect the risk perception of the participants. These findings suggest that the discontinuity between expert views and the public perceptions of health risk can be bridged by effectively utilizing risk ladders when presenting risk magnitudes to the public.

Open PDF

Document Details

Document Type
Technical Report
Publication Date
Sep 01, 1997
Accession Number
ADA329830

Entities

People

  • Steve A. Dinzart

Organizations

  • Air Force Institute of Technology

Tags

DTIC Thesaurus Topics

  • Data Analysis
  • Data Mining
  • Data Science
  • Descriptive Analytics
  • Ecology
  • Environmental Protection
  • Experimental Design
  • Information Science
  • Literature Surveys
  • Pilot Studies
  • Reliability
  • Risk Analysis
  • Statistical Analysis
  • Statistical Tests
  • Statistics
  • Students
  • Time Intervals

Readers

  • Aviation Safety Risk Assessment.
  • Mental Health of Military Veterans with Posttraumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD): Risk Factors, Prevalence, Symptoms, and Treatment.
  • Theoretical Analysis.