Sociopolitical Determinants of Perceived Risk

许多研究发现，在广泛的危害范围内，女性的感知风险水平高于男性。对于这一发现，人们提出了许多解释，主要集中在生物因素、社会化和风险知识的差异上。然而，弗林、斯洛维奇和默茨最近的一项研究发现，男性和女性之间的差异主要是由于白人男性，他们表现出的感知风险水平非常低。在非白人人群中，男女之间没有差异。此外，非白人女性对风险的认知与白人女性相似。这些结果和其他发现使Flynn等人假设社会政治因素，如地位、权力、异化和信任，在风险的感知和接受中起着重要作用。本研究验证了这一假设。研究计划包括开发一种调查工具，旨在评估社会政治结构，如权力、控制、影响、异化、社会阶层和信任，以及预测风险感知的其他变量（如世界观）。还将获得有关种族、性别、年龄、职业和收入的人口资料。受访者将是不同种族、性别和社会地位的目标群体的成员。标准的多变量分析和结构模型将用于确定种族和性别对风险感知的影响程度，这些影响可以通过调查中测量的社会政治结构来解释。发现社会政治因素在决定对社会风险的感知和接受方面起着重要作用，将对风险沟通和风险管理产生巨大影响。在传播方面，这将说明为什么以翻译和传播技术资料为基础的传统办法收效甚微。任何形式的信息“框架”都不可能克服疏离和不信任。在管理方面，最近的一些建议要求进行更好的技术风险评估和专家监督，作为减少冲突和更好的风险管理的关键。然而，由于不相容的价值观、普遍的不信任、异化和其他社会和政治因素而产生的冲突不太可能通过技术分析来减少。事实上，试图用更多的科学来解决这些风险争议可能会加剧冲突。

Numerous studies have found that the level of perceived risk is higher for women than for men, across a wide range of hazards. Many explanations for this finding have been proposed, focusing upon biological factors, socialization, and differences in knowledge about risk. A recent study by Flynn, Slovic, and Mertz found, however, that the difference between men and women was primarily due to white males, who exhibited very low levels of perceived risk. Among persons who were not white, there was no difference between men and women. Moreover, nonwhite persons held perceptions of risk that were similar to those of white women. These results and other findings lead Flynn et al. to hypothesize that sociopolitical factors such as status, power, alienation, and trust play a major role in perception and acceptance of risks. The present research tests this hypothesis. The research plan includes the development of a survey instrument designed to assess sociopolitical constructs such as power, control, influence, alienation, social class, and trust, along with other variables predictive of risk perceptions (such as worldviews). Demographic information pertaining to race, gender, age, occupation and income will also be obtained. Respondents will be members of targeted groups varying on race, gender, and social status. Standard multivariate analyses and structural modeling will be used to determine the extent to which the effects of race and gender on risk perception can be explained by the sociopolitical constructs measured in the survey. Finding that sociopolitical factors play a major role in determining perception and acceptance of societal risk would have enormous implications for risk communication and risk management. On the communication side, it would indicate why traditional approaches based on translating and disseminating technical information have had so little success. No form of message `framing` is likely to overcome alienation and distrust. On the management side, a number of recent proposals have called for better technical risk assessment and expert oversight as the key to conflict reduction and better risk management. However, conflicts due to incompatible values, pervasive distrust, alienation, and other social and political factors would be unlikely to be reduced by technical analysis. Trying to address such risk controversies with more science, in fact, would be likely to exacerbate conflict.