PT101.S1.P1.Q3 > Analytics

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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.

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.

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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.

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.

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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

According to the passage, it ██ ████████ ████ █████ ███ ██ ███ █████████ ████ █████ ████ ████ █████████████ ███████ ██ ███████████ ████ ███ ██████ ███ ████ ████████ █████ █████ █ ██████████ ███████████

The lay people, ██████████ ████ ███ ████ █████████████ ████ ████████ █████████████ ████████████ ████ ███████ █████ ████████ ████████

Unsupported. The lay people won’t recognize their errors or change their minds—they’ll just misunderstand what the risk communicators are trying to say.

The lay people ████ ████ █████████ ██████ █████ █████ ██ ███ █████ ██ ███ ███ ████████████

Unsupported. The lay people won’t recognize their errors or change their minds—they’ll just misunderstand what the risk communicators are trying to say.

The lay people, ███████ ███ ███ ███████████ ████ █████ ████████ ██████████ ████ █████████ ███ █████████████ ███████████ ████ ███ ████ █████████████ ███ █████████

This paraphrases the author’s prediction. She adopts the principle that people fit new information into the framework of their existing beliefs. And f those beliefs are mistaken, people will misinterpret what the risk communicators were trying to say.

76%

The lay people, ████████████████ ███ ███ ████████████ ████ ███████ ███████ ███ ███████████ ████ ████ ███████████ ██ ██ █████ ███ ███████

Starts off right, but takes it too far. The lay people will misunderstand the new information. But the prediction ends there. The author doesn’t suggest that lay people ever distort information.

10%

The lay people ████ ██████ ███ █████████████ █████ █ ██████████ ████ ████████ ███████████ ██████████

The author does raise concerns that lay people might sometimes ignore risk communicators’ messages, but she never suggests that they specifically do this with any communication about a technology they consider dangerous, or that they do this whenever they have mistaken ideas about that technology.

PrepTest 101 - Section 1 - Passage 1 - Question 3

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