The Social Amplification of Risk

该项目的总体目的是开发和测试一种将风险评估的心理、社会学和技术方面联系起来的新方法。这项研究将审查危害与社会和文化因素相互作用以扩大或减弱公众对风险的反应的过程。该项目的具体目标是：(1)将对风险事件的不同社会反应整合到一个连贯的风险放大理论中；(2)在不同的危害和事件情景中检查风险放大的模式。基于案例研究的详细回顾。尽管综合方法对风险评估很重要，但很少有研究针对开发一种考虑到风险事件的更广泛的社会和文化影响的系统方法。这个创新项目将为这种整合提供理论基础，并通过案例研究验证这种方法。预期研究结果将有助于更好地理解为什么一些风险事件被放大而另一些没有，并为风险分析人员和决策者提供更全面的基础来解决困难的风险问题。

The overall purpose of this project is to develop and test a new approach that links psychological, sociological, and technical aspects of risk assessment. The study will examine processes through which hazards interact with social and cultural factors to amplify or attenuate public responses to risk. The specific objectives of the project are (1) to integrate different social responses to risk events into a coherent theory of risk amplification, and (2) to examine patterns of risk amplification across a diverse set of hazards and event scenarios, based on a detailed review of case studies. Despite the importance of integrative approaches to risk assessment, little research has been directed toward developing a systematic approach that takes into account the broader social and cultural implications of a risk event. This innovative project will both develop a theoretical basis for this integration and validate the approach using case studies. It is expected that the results of the study will contribute to the development of better understanding of why some risk events are amplified and others not, and provide risk analysts and decision makers with a more comprehensive basis for addressing difficult risk problems.