Gun Control and the Cultural Theory of Risk

风险文化理论认为，个人的世界观决定性地影响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，人们自然会考虑相信或忽视一种断言的危险会传达出他们的社会价值观。先前的研究表明，价值观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等无数社会风险的分歧。这些结果被用来制定解决各种纠纷的程序，在这些纠纷中，相互冲突的文化价值观和相互冲突的事实信念相互加强。目前的研究将使用风险的文化理论来调查公众对枪支的态度。枪支管制辩论的特点是对风险的不同主张：一方面，对枪支的监管不足将使公民容易受到故意或意外枪击的伤害；另一方面，过度监管将使公民无法保护自己免受攻击。这项研究的假设是，文化取向决定了个人更可能认真对待这些风险主张中的哪一种。为了验证这一假设，调查人员将设计并开展一项关于文化取向和枪支风险认知的全国性调查。他们还将考虑风险感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.