Public Valuation of Lifesaving: The Controllability Issue

救生的公众评估：可控性问题

• 批准号: 9975194
• 负责人: Susanne Goldie
• 金额: $ 14.87万
• 依托单位: Harvard University
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 1999
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 1999-07-01 至 2002-06-30
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=9975194&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: Public; Valuation; Lifesaving; Controllability; Issue

Public Valuation of Lifesaving: The Controllability IssueAbstractRisk analysts frequently use cost-effectiveness analysis to make decisions about the relative value of different policy options. Embedded in these analyses is the assumption that one life saved is equal to any other. Research has shown, however, that people think about the value of lives as affected by other qualitative factors, such as the risks people take and whether those risks are controllable by the individual or undertaken voluntarily. This project will explore how controllability and voluntariness influence peoples' valuation of lives in policy contexts.Specifically, an instrument will be developed to measure people's preferences for the valuation of lives. Like values or beliefs, preferences are challenging to measure because people can be unsure of or reluctant to reveal their preferences, and hence unable to answer survey questions. Previous researchers have devised a variety of techniques to overcome these difficulties, with varying success. Focus groups, cognitive interviews and survey pre-testing will be used to explore different methods for measuring preferences, and to develop an approach that produces stable and unbiased results of peoples' valuation of lives that are exposed to controllable or uncontrollable, and voluntary or involuntary risks.Three real-world, lifesaving scenarios will be used to elicit preferences: (1) airbag design to preferentially protect belted versus unbelted drivers, (2) liver transplant in persons with liver damage secondary to alcohol use versus other causes, (3) and regulatory priority for indoor versus outdoor sources of air pollution. Real-world topics that are well-defined and compelling offer the best opportunity to develop appropriate tools because they are familiar and interesting to people. The final product of this research will be a survey instrument that can measure how much the controllability and voluntary nature of risk-taking affects how people value lives saved by risk prevention and risk reduction policies. Once collected, this measurement could be directly incorporated into policy analyses that inform decisions about which policies are most desired by the public. This may allow policy decisions to be adjusted for people's preferences about the nature of lives that are saved by risk prevention and risk reduction policies.

公众对救生的评估：可控性问题摘要风险分析师经常使用成本效益分析来决定不同政策选项的相对价值。在这些分析中嵌入了这样的假设，即拯救的一条生命与其他任何一条生命是一样的。然而，研究表明，人们认为生命的价值受到其他定性因素的影响，比如人们承担的风险，以及这些风险是个人可控的还是自愿承担的。这个项目将探索在政策背景下可控性和自愿性如何影响人们的生活价值。具体地说，将开发一种工具来衡量人们对生活价值的偏好。就像价值观或信仰一样，偏好很难衡量，因为人们可能不确定或不愿透露自己的偏好，因此无法回答调查问题。之前的研究人员设计了各种技术来克服这些困难，并取得了不同的成功。将利用焦点小组、认知访谈和调查预测试来探索衡量偏好的不同方法，并开发一种方法，对暴露在可控或不可控、自愿或非自愿风险下的人们的生命评估产生稳定和公正的结果。三种现实世界中的救生场景将被用来引发偏好：(1)安全气囊设计，优先保护戴安全带的司机和未系安全带的司机；(2)对饮酒继发肝损伤的人进行肝移植，而不是其他原因；(3)室内与室外空气污染源的监管优先。定义明确且引人入胜的真实世界主题提供了开发适当工具的最佳机会，因为它们对人们来说既熟悉又有趣。这项研究的最终成果将是一种调查工具，它可以衡量冒险的可控性和自愿性在多大程度上影响人们对通过风险预防和降低风险政策拯救的生命的价值。一旦收集到这一衡量标准，就可以直接将其纳入政策分析，为公众做出哪些政策最受欢迎的决策提供信息。这可能允许根据人们对风险预防和降低风险政策所拯救的生命性质的偏好来调整政策决定。