Gun Control and the Cultural Theory of Risk

文化风险理论认为，个人的世界观决定了他们对哪些危险值得监管改进的评估。在评估相互竞争的主张和证据时，个人自然会考虑对所断言的危险给予信任或打折扣会传达出什么关于他们社会价值观的信息。以前的研究表明，价值观上的差异解释了公众对从环境灾难到外国入侵再到经济崩溃的无数社会风险的分歧。这些结果已经被用来制定解决各种争端的程序，在这些争端中，相互冲突的文化价值观和相互冲突的事实信念相互促进。本研究将使用文化风险理论来考察公众对枪支的态度。枪支管制辩论的特点是相互矛盾的风险主张：一方面，对枪支监管不足会让公民容易受到故意或意外枪击的伤害；另一方面，过度监管会让公民无法保护自己免受袭击者的攻击。这项研究的假设是，文化取向决定了个人可能更认真地对待这些风险声明中的哪一种。为了验证这一假设，调查人员将设计并进行一项关于文化取向和枪支风险认知的全国性调查。他们还将审议风险认知的文化理论对解决枪支管制辩论的影响。

The cultural theory of risk posits that individuals' worldviews decisively shape their assessments of what dangers are worthy of regulatory amelioration. When evaluating competing claims and evidence, individuals naturally consider what crediting or discounting an asserted danger would convey about their society's values. Previous studies have shown that differences over values explain public disagreements over myriad societal risks from environmental catastrophe to foreign invasion to economic collapse. These results have been used to develop procedures for resolving various disputes in which conflicting cultural values and conflicting factual beliefs reinforce one another.The current study will use the cultural theory of risk to examine public attitudes toward guns. The gun control debate features competing claims of risk: that insufficient regulation of guns will make citizens vulnerable to deliberate or accidental shootings, on the one hand; and that excessive regulation will leave citizens unable to defend themselves from attackers, on the other. The hypothesis of this study is that cultural orientations determine which of these risk claims individuals are likely to take more seriously. To test this hypothesis, the investigators will design and conduct a nationwide survey on cultural orientations and gun-risk perceptions. They will also consider the implications of the cultural theory of risk perception for resolution of the gun control debate.