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.
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.
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
2.
The authors of the passage █████ ██ ████ ██████ ██ █████ ████ ███ ███████ ███████ ██ ████ █████████████ ██████ ██ ██
Question Type
Author’s perspective
Implied
The author’s attitude toward the purpose of risk communication is revealed most clearly at the top of P2.
a
explain rather than ██ ████████
Strongly supported. In P1, the author explains that some people see the role of risk communication as just an attempt to persuade people not to worry about certain risks. She then clarifies in P2 that the purpose should instead be to properly explain risks to people.
b
promote rather than ██ ███████
Unsupported. The concepts of promoting and justifying don’t come up in the passage. Perhaps we could say that the author wants risk communication to “promote” people’s ability to make informed decisions, but (A) captures that point better. And the author doesn’t argue against the idea of “justifying” anything.
c
influence experts rather ████ ██ █████████ ███ ██████
Unsupported. Lay people are the intended audience of risk communication. The author never suggests experts as an audience.
Misdirection. The risk communicators mentioned in P1 want to allay people’s fears about exotic hazards. The author argues against that view, but she doesn’t suggest that they should just allay people’s fears about mundane hazards instead. She’s against the whole idea that risk communication should be about allaying fears or persuading people. She thinks it should be about educating people instead.
Anti-supported. This says the purpose of risk communication should be to persuade people to accept new technologies, not to address people’s ethical concerns. But the author is against that view on both counts. She says at the top of P2 that instead of focusing on persuasion, risk communication should be about educating people. And she recommends in P3 that risk communicators need to recognize and understand people’s beliefs about ethical issues.
Difficulty
96% of people who answer get this correct
This is a slightly challenging question.
It is similar in difficulty to other questions in this passage.
CURVE
Score of students with a 50% chance of getting this right
25%124
135
75%145
Analysis
Author’s perspective
Implied
Critique or debate
Humanities
Problem-analysis
Answer Popularity
PopularityAvg. score
a
96%
168
b
1%
161
c
1%
154
d
1%
161
e
1%
160
Question history
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