Self-study
P1
To many developers of technologies that affect public health or the environment, "risk communication" means persuading the public that the potential risks of such technologies are small and should be ignored. █████ ███ ███████████ █████ ██ ████ ███ ████ ██ ███████ ████ ███ ██████ ██ ███ ██████████ ███ ██████ ██████ ██ █████████████ █████ ███ ████ ███ ████
Intro topic ·
Risk communication
People who communicate risks to the public think lay people often ignore mundane dangers, but fear exotic dangers that are highly unlikely to materialize.
P2
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Author's perspective ·
Need clear understanding about how public perceives risk
Lay people's definition of risk ·
Involves subject ethical concerns
Example: small risk to children is more important than large risk to consenting adults.
Lay people's assessment of risk ·
Generally accurate, when not considering ethical matters
Lay people provide reasonably accurate ranks of hazards by annual number of deaths. A study showed that they can understand specific risks of electromagnetic fields.
P3
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Author's perspective ·
Risk communicators should understand what their audience knows and believes about risk
This will increase the chance that risk communicators' message is understood accurately.
Example supporting author ·
Recent study showed effectiveness of risk-communication based on understanding the public
Brochure on risks of radon was developed based on interviews and questionnaires of the public. People who read this brochure understood the risks of radon better than people who had read a different brochure that didn't involve interviews or questionnaires of the public.
Passage Style
Critique or debate
Problem-analysis
4.
Which one of the following ██ ████ ███████ ██ ███████ ██ ███ ████ ██ ████ ██████████ █████████ ██ ███ █
a
A skydiver checks ███ █████ ██ ███ █████████ ███████ █████ ██████ █ ████ ███████ ███████ █████ █████ ████ ███ ██████████ ████ ███████ █████████
Right away, this only describes one kind of hazard, so it’s not a great example. (The studies in P1 are about people’s reactions to two different kinds of hazards.) Also, this describes someone worried about an exotic but likely hazard: tangled lines “often” pose a risk. We’re looking for an example of someone who worries about an exotic but unlikely hazard, and who ignores a mundane but significant hazard.
b
A person decides ██ ████ ███████ ██ █████ ██ ██████ ███ ███████████ ██ ████ ██████ ██ ███████ ███ ███ ███████
Right away, this only describes one kind of hazard, so it’s not a great example. (The studies in P1 are about people’s reactions to two different kinds of hazards.) Also, this describes someone worried about a mundane but significant hazard. (Smoking is reasonably common but is known to have serious health impacts.) We’re looking for an example of someone who ignores this kind of hazard, and who worries about an exotic but unlikely hazard.
c
A homeowner who ███████ ██ ████ ███ █████ ██████ ███ █████ ████ ███████ ███ ██ █████ ██████ ██ █████ ██ ███ ██████
This describes someone worried about both a rather exotic hazard (radon, a rare radioactive gas) and a mundane one (smoking exposure). We’re looking for an example of someone who worries about an exotic but unlikely hazard, and who ignores a mundane but significant hazard. (By the way, if you didn’t know what radon is, that’s a good reason right there to assume it’s something on the more exotic side of potential hazards.)
d
A person who █████ ██████ ██ ███ ███ ██ ███████ █████ ███████ ███ ███ ██ █████████ ██████ ███████ █████ ██████████ ███████ ███ ██████
This is a good example of someone who ignores a hazard that’s mundane but quite dangerous (reckless driving) and who worries about a hazard that’s exotic but unlikely (meteorite through the roof). This is the kind of scenario described by the studies in P1.
e
A group of ███████████ ███████ ███ ████████ ██ █ ███████ █████ ████ ███████ █████ ████ ███ ████████ ████ ███ ████ ██ ██████ ██ ███████ █████
Right away, this only describes one kind of hazard, so it’s not a great example. (The studies in P1 are about people’s reactions to two different kinds of hazards.) Also, this describes people who worry about a rather exotic hazard (nuclear waste dump site)—but is that hazard unlikely to cause problems? Hard to say... Depends on how safe nuclear waste dumps are. We’re looking for a nice, tidy example of worrying about an exotic but clearly unlikely hazard, and also ignoring a mundane but significant hazard.