Timothy L. McDaniels1, Lawrence J. Axelrod1, Nigel Cavanagh1, Paul Slovic2
1University of British Columbia, Westwater Research Centre and School of Community and Regional Planning, 433–6333 Memorial Road, Vancouver, British Columbia V6T 1Z2, Canada.
2Decision Research, 1201 Oak Street, Eugene, Oregon 97401–3575.
Tóm tắt
This paper examines lay and expert perceptions of the ecological risks associated with a range of human activities that could adversely affect water resource environments. It employs the psychometric paradigm pioneered in characterizing perceptions of human health risks, which involves surveys to obtain judgments from subjects about risk items in terms of several important characteristics of the risks. The paper builds on a previous study that introduced ecological risk perception. This second study employs a larger, more diverse sample, a more focused topic area, and comparisons between lay and expert judgments. The results confirm that a small set of underlying factors explain a great deal of variability in lay judgments about ecological risks. These have been termed Ecological Impact, Human Benefits, Controllability, and Knowledge. The results are useful in explaining subjects’ judgments of the general riskiness of, and need for regulation of, various risk items. The results also indicate several differences and areas of agreement among the lay and expert samples that point to potential key issues in future ecological risk management efforts for water resources.
Từ khóa
Tài liệu tham khảo
Krimsky S., 1992, Social Theories of Risk
O'Connor R. E., 1994, Perceptions of Fresh Water, National Geographic Research and Exploration, 10, 318
