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
6.
According to the passage, many ███ ██████ ███████ █████ ███ ██ ███ █████████ █████ ████ ██████████████
Question Type
Stated
The views of lay people themselves on risk communication are mentioned at the end of P1: “many lay people see ‘risk communication’ as a euphemism for brainwashing done by experts.”
a
It focuses excessively ██ ███████ ████████
Unsupported. There’s no discussion about what lay people think is the target of risk communication. (Is it mundane hazards or exotic hazards? We don’t get an opinion from lay people.) All we’re told about lay people’s opinion on risk communication is that they see it as brainwashing.
b
It is a ████ ████ ██ ██████████ ███ ███████
This is a good paraphrase of what the author states is how many lay people see risk communication: as brainwashing to get them to accept the risks of certain technologies.
c
It is a █████ █████ ██ ████████████ ██ ██████ █████████ █████ ████████
Too strong. Nothing in the passage suggests that lay people (or anyone else) see risk communication as a major cause of public misunderstanding about science in general. Rather, lay people see risk communication as a possible source of public manipulation about certain technological risks.
d
It most often █████████ ██ ████ ██████ ████ ████████ ██████████
Anti-supported. Many lay people see risk communication as brainwashing designed to persuade or manipulate, as opposed to something that helps people make their own informed decisions.
e
Its level of █████████████ ███████ ██ ███ █████ ██ █████████ ███ ████████ ███████ ████
Misdirection. This close to what the author believes. (She believes that its level of effectiveness depends on whether or not it’s been tailored to the level of knowledge its audience already has.) As for what lay people believe, nothing in passage suggests that they think the audience’s knowledge level makes any difference.
Difficulty
93% 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%131
141
75%151
Analysis
Stated
Critique or debate
Humanities
Problem-analysis
Answer Popularity
PopularityAvg. score
a
1%
154
b
93%
168
c
0%
164
d
2%
159
e
4%
161
Question history
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