Narrow Results

In this paper, we propose a novel model with dynamically adjusted confidence level of others to investigate the propagation of public opinion on whether to buy chicken in the case of avian influenza infection in humans. We study how people adjust their confidence level in other people’s opinions according to their perceived infection risk and how the opinion evolution and epidemic spreading affect each other on different complex networks by taking into account the spreading feature of avian influenza, that is, only people who buy chicken are possible to be infected. The simulation results show that in a closed system, people who support buying chicken and people who are infected can achieve a dynamic balance after a few time-steps, and the final stable state is mainly dependent on the level of people’s risk perception, rather than the initial distribution of the different opinions. Our results imply that in the course of the epidemic spread, transparent and timely announcement of the number of infections and the risk of infection can help people take the right self-protection actions, and thus help control the spread of avian influenza.

An epidemic spreading model is presented in the framework of the kinetic theory of active particles. The model is characterized by the influence of risk perception which can reduce the diffusion of infection. The evolution of the system is modeled through nonlinear interactions, whose output is described by stochastic games. The results of numerical simulations are discussed for different initial conditions.

This study uses cognitive biases to examine opportunity evaluation among family and non-family entrepreneurs, and investigated the effect of risk perception in this type of entrepreneurs. The aim of this paper is to examine empirically if family entrepreneurs differ in terms of risk perception and opportunity evaluation from non-family entrepreneurs. We use a sample of 144 established businesses to run both test hypothesis and regression analysis. Our results indicate that there is no significant difference between the two categories of entrepreneurs. The structural regression analysis suggests that risk perception mediates opportunity evaluation and that (i) the belief in the law of small numbers and (ii) the illusion of control decreases risk perception among entrepreneurs when evaluating an opportunity.

Combining data from a content analysis of leading newspapers, a random-sampled national survey ($n=1,306$), and a semantic network analysis of Facebook postings, this study applies Network Agenda Setting and attribute-priming effects to examine how perceptions of risks, benefits, and trust in government regulation influenced the public’s evaluation of the Presidential performance in the 2012 controversy over imports of American beef in Taiwan. The results show that only perceived risks to health directly affected the public’s evaluation of the President; other types of risks damaged the public’s trust in government regulation, which consequently harmed their evaluation of the President’s performance.

In general, it could be said that bats are blind but they have high quality senses of smelling and hearing to survive. Similarly, entrepreneurs can look at the business world with different eyes to survive. This affects their cognitive biases in risk perception. The aim of this study was to analyze how entrepreneurs’ cognitive biases affect their opportunity exploitation and risk perception. In this study, we evaluated self-efficacy, locus of control, overconfidence and optimism as dimensions of cognition. Independently of our purpose, results also show entrepreneurs have social capital, such as experience and prior knowledge, which forms their cognitive biases and leads them to perceive less risk when evaluating a new venture idea.

The Philippines faces an opposition to genetic engineering in agriculture led by a coalition of non-governmental organisations (NGOs). There is an ongoing public debate which is mainly focused on transgenic Bacillus thuringiensis (Bt) rice and its potential contribution to future food security in Asia.

The present research project evaluated perception patterns among the main participants in the Philippine debate on transgenic rice and the political importance attributed to these participants.

For this purpose, a survey of 65 respondents representing the relevant institutions involved in the public debate was conducted using a semi-structured questionnaire.

The results suggest that non-governmental organisations (NGOs) and other public interest groups are generally not in favour while scientists are generally in favour of transgenic rice. A majority of the political decision makers has very high expectations with regard to the potential of genetic engineering for solving problems in the Philippine rice economy. However, their attitude with regard to risks and benefits of Bt rice is ambivalent.

This article focuses on public participation in Sweden during the planning of the Nord Stream gas pipeline. The pipeline runs from Russia to Germany, and passes close to the Swedish island of Gotland. Results from a survey study conducted among 990 Swedish citizens, where 200 respondents are residents on the island of Gotland, reveal that there are differences between men and women in how risks with this project were perceived. More women than men expressed a desire for more participatory processes, even if they stated that they would not participate themselves. Women on Gotland expressed a more negative view of the gas pipeline and also perceived greater risks. Results indicate that public participation could have been better at addressing gender and regional specific needs.

This study evaluated factors that could influence the risk perception of ironworkers. Descriptive statistics and logistic regression were used to analyze data collected through a survey to ironworkers in the United States. Logistic regression was used to investigate the influence of different variables studied on the probability of workers perceiving an action as dangerous, thereby providing an indication of how workers perceive risk in the tasks that they perform. Variables that were found to be significant in the analysis were accident and injury experience, experience in steel erection and construction work, safety incentive programs, and type of tasks performed.

Active fault data have been more widely and closely investigated and extensive data have also been collected. However, there are only a few examples related to land use planning for disaster reduction measures based on active fault data. The purpose of this study is (1) to categorize the disaster reduction measures, and (2) to examine problems and important factors for promoting disaster reduction measures based on a questionnaire survey. The cases of the measures that are able to be distinguished included building restriction, nonconstruction restriction, and risk communication. The questionnaire survey was conducted with the residents of Yokosuka city. The results of analyses showed that disaster reduction measures based on active fault data tended to be approximately accepted. Other results indicated that as the public's understanding related to earthquake risk and risk mitigation measures increases, the awareness of risk reduction measures based on active fault data is promoted, and the objectives of disaster reduction measures would be realized.

Understanding how people perceive the risks of extreme heat is an essential part of developing better risk communication strategies and ultimately reducing vulnerability to heat. This study analyzed how tourists perceive and respond to extreme heat while recreating on public lands in southeastern Utah, a hot and dry environment. An increasing number of tourists are visiting national parks in the southwestern United States, exposing more people to heat-related health risks. This investigation focuses on how geographic differences of origin and thermal perceptions are associated with risk perceptions of extreme heat, and how risk perceptions in turn are associated with protective behaviors. This study found that risk perceptions of extreme heat were not significantly associated with demographic differences or the geographic origin of respondents. This study did find that while visitors could accurately predict the air temperature, on average within 1.1^∘C (2^∘F) of the actual temperature, visitors’ risk perception of extreme heat did not increase as temperatures increased. This study also found that visitors with higher risk perceptions were more likely to have engaged in certain protective behaviors — such as checking the weather conditions before their hike — but not others, such as the amount of water they carried. By understanding how people perceive and respond to the hazard, we can better understand best practices for communicating the risks of extreme heat with the intent of saving lives. These results are intended to help tourist agencies, emergency and natural resource managers and planners, and policymakers in creating and improving communication strategies for extreme heat.

We tested mediation models using structural equation modeling (SEM) to better understand the pathways that lead to negative heat-health outcomes for socially vulnerable households and individuals in Phoenix, AZ. Extreme heat presents a significant risk to public health, and current theories of social vulnerability cannot explain the mechanistic pathways that lead to negative health outcomes. A better understanding of these pathways can be used to target more effective public health interventions. We find that self-reported indoor thermal discomfort was a strong and significant predictor of indoor heat illness outcomes (Std $\mathrm{\text{B}}=0.72$, $p<0.01$), suggesting that heat risk messaging could encourage the public to trust their personal sense of being too warm. Thermal discomfort (Std $\mathrm{\text{B}}=-0.28$, $p<0.01$) and self-reported indoor heat illness (Std $\mathrm{\text{B}}=-0.47$, $p<0.01$) were only predicted by socioeconomic status (SES); age, gender, and racialized group did not relate to heat illness or thermal discomfort based on our sample. However, specified mediators did not fully explain the relationship between SES and thermal discomfort or heat illness, suggesting that we do not fully understand how social vulnerability manifests as negative heat-health outcomes. In addition, results show that passive cooling techniques, like taking a cold shower, did not have a protective effect on heat-health outcomes, and these passive cooling behaviors were used in greater proportion by socially vulnerable individuals. This study concludes with 11 evidence-based hypotheses about how social vulnerability may produce negative heat-health outcomes.

This study sought to measure risk perception and behavior intention of residents in coastal counties in Alabama and Florida in areas affected by Hurricane Michael in October 2018. The aim was to examine individual responses to impending disasters in areas that were recently touched by Hurricane Michael. Risk Information Seeking and Processing (RISP) model and the Theory of Planned Behavior (TPB) were employed in an experiment testing how visual cues and media messages surrounding an impending hypothetical hurricane were interpreted by residents, and their reported influence on an individual’s risk perception and decision-making in the situation. An analysis of 567 respondents determined that live video was most likely to motivate respondents to prepare activities for the storms.

We investigate household perceptions of water quality and associated averting behaviors using household survey data from León, Nicaragua. Seemingly unrelated instrumental variable probit models are estimated to take the potential endogeneity of water quality perceptions and the relationship between different averting behaviors into account. Survey results indicate that a large majority of households use tap water for drinking purposes. Less than 26% of sampled households implement in-home water treatments and about 33% of households consume bottled water. Results indicate that observed averting behaviors (i.e., consumption of bottled water and in-home water treatments), or lack thereof, are primarily driven by the perceived quality of tap water. Findings also indicate that perceptions of water quality are associated with service performance and assessment of water quality relative to peers. Policy implications are discussed.

Water quality remains a significant issue and a source of serious health concern in the developing world. This paper investigates the water averting behavior at the household level by using a primary survey data from Siddharthangar, Nepal. While past studies have generally attributed averting behaviors to risk perception, we place a particular emphasis on the divergence between the household’s perception of their drinking water quality and the actual water quality level in driving the averting behavior. The findings indicate that the perception of the water quality affects a household’s decision to employ water treatment measures. Households that considered their water to be safe were less likely to treat their water. Furthermore, in addition to perception, the result also suggests the deviation between actual and perceived water quality level could also be a crucial element in the decision to employ water treatment measures. Households with divergence between risk perception and the objective water quality levels were less likely to treat their water and this result held across different specifications. In contrast, households with minimal deviation were more likely to employ treatment measures. Findings also suggest the source of drinking water, education level, income and the taste of the drinking water also drives the averting behavior.

In this paper, we share and discuss findings from our study involving Grades 9–12 Singapore students’ conceptions and perceptions of radiation and radioactivity. The students would have learned in science lessons about electromagnetic waves and the basic atomic structure but had no prior formal classroom lessons on radioactivity and nuclear physics. We found similar alternative conceptions and risk perceptions held by the students as reported in literature. These findings provide useful background knowledge for teachers to consider when developing learning experiences for students in this topic, with the goal to develop a strong foundation in the related key concepts and address risk perception gaps for students to make responsible and informed decisions on scientific and technological applications associated with radiation and radioactivity.

The psychological changes and behavior of the public in the face of public health emergencies are the important reference for emergency decision-making. This paper systematically reviews the risk perception, behavior and emotion under public health emergencies, and attempts to provide a theoretical framework for the in-depth study of the relationship and influencing factors among the three, so as to further explore the impact of emergency communication resource allocation on public risk perception, behavior and emotion. To provide a theoretical basis for the establishment of a multi-level and comprehensive emotional guidance mechanism.

Using modified versions of the Domain-Specific Risk-Taking (DOSPERT) scale, we conducted surveys among German and Chinese university students. Our tests confirm previous findings that risk taking is indeed domain-specific. More importantly, our results show that differences in risk behavior are attributable more to perceived risk than to expected benefits. Risk behavior is almost entirely predictable by differences in the attitude towards perceived risk, but less so by differences in the subjective evaluation of expected benefits. Additionally, our study measures risk attitude through two distinct methodologies: on an individual-subject level and on a group-level. We find that the individual-subject risk attitude can lead to inadequate conclusions. Furthermore, our research highlights the relevance of national culture as an important factor for explaining risk-taking propensity. Our findings yield substantial support for the ‘cushion hypothesis’ and highlight the usefulness of the cultural dimension of individualism versus collectivism in order to explain risk behavior.