PT101.S1.P1.Q6 > 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, many ███ ██████ ███████ █████ ███ ██ ███ █████████ █████ ████ ██████████████

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.

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.

82%

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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.

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.

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.

10%

PrepTest 101 - Section 1 - Passage 1 - Question 6

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Analysis

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