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Re-Perceiving Perceived Risk: Examining the Psychological Structure of Risk Perception

Walpole, Hugh David
http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=osu157469610850242

Abstract Details

2019, Doctor of Philosophy, Ohio State University, Environment and Natural Resources.
The holistic judgments that people make about the risks associated with hazards (or their “risk perceptions”) are an integral part of many theoretical models of how people respond to natural and technological hazards that threaten them. Over the last four decades we have seen an enormous body of research on the factors that make up and impact risk perceptions across individuals, cultures, hazards and contexts. Despite the importance of perceptions and the large body of work investigating the ways in which it operates, there is surprisingly little consensus on how to measure perceived risk. Some measures are extremely general while others only cover a specific risk belief (for instance, the probability of a negative outcome), or a specific process through which risk beliefs may be interpreted (for instance, how much fear or concern a hazard creates). These differences in measurement cause us to miss the opportunity to make comparisons between the individual populations and hazards studied in hazards research. In this dissertation, we address this gap by developing a generalizable way of thinking about and measuring risk perception that can be used across populations and hazards. To do so, we build on existing research by establishing four key factors that comprise the building blocks for risk perception (Chapter 1) and developing empirically supported and parsimonious measures for each of these building blocks (Chapter 2). We then seek to establish a structure for a model using these building blocks to assess if risk is perceived simultaneously through analytic and affective processes using both correlational (Chapter 3) and experimental (Chapter 4) methods. The goal of this dissertation is to develop a generalizable model and measure for perceived risk that can account for the most current theoretical insights into how people make holistic judgments about the risks associated with the hazards that threaten them.
Robyn Wilson, PhD (Advisor)
Jeremy Brooks, PhD (Committee Member)
Nicole Sintov, PhD (Committee Member)
262 p.
Psychology
Risk; risk perception; affect; risk analysis;

Recommended Citations

Citations

  • Walpole, H. D. (2019). Re-Perceiving Perceived Risk: Examining the Psychological Structure of Risk Perception [Doctoral dissertation, Ohio State University]. OhioLINK Electronic Theses and Dissertations Center. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=osu157469610850242

    APA Style (7th edition)

  • Walpole, Hugh. Re-Perceiving Perceived Risk: Examining the Psychological Structure of Risk Perception. 2019. Ohio State University, Doctoral dissertation. OhioLINK Electronic Theses and Dissertations Center, http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=osu157469610850242.

    MLA Style (8th edition)

  • Walpole, Hugh. "Re-Perceiving Perceived Risk: Examining the Psychological Structure of Risk Perception." Doctoral dissertation, Ohio State University, 2019. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=osu157469610850242

    Chicago Manual of Style (17th edition)

osu157469610850242
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This open access ETD is published by The Ohio State University and OhioLINK.