This paper examines how institutional trust affects the way in which people process information and perceive risk. Data come from a study of risk perception in the circumstance of US state health department investigations of suspected cancer clusters, with 30 cases examined (n = 1,111). Trust is...

The application of biotechnology to agriculture is highly controversial between consumers and lawmakers across the globe, especially in the case of Genetically Modified Foods (GMFs). Consumer attitudes toward GMFs are largely negative in the developed nations. However, studies conducted in...

Despite active scientific research into the geological sequestration of carbon dioxide, little is known about how the public perceives geosequestration technologies designed to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by capturing and storing carbon dioxide in underground sites. Thus, through an online...

Trust is widely recognised as a key variable in perceptions and decision-making about environmental risks. However, most considerations of trust treat it as a simple two-agent relationship. Based on an analysis of a contaminated site cleanup in New Jersey, we identify a more complex construction...

The nature of the relation between trust and Risk Perception (RP) has recently become a focus of increased interest among risk management researchers. Some argue that trust is strongly related to RP and that it therefore might prove to be a key to the development of more effective risk...

Dissemination of information to decision-makers and enhanced methods of public participation are often put forward as antidotes to a perceived disconnect between risk assessment and risk communication in the public domain. However, mechanisms that support both the provision of routine, timely...

Social trust has often been claimed to be an important determinant of perceived risk, a finding that, if true, has important consequences for risk communication. However, the empirical basis of the alleged relationship between social trust and risk perception is weak. Previous work has pointed...

To better understand how health risks are conceptualised by the Canadian public, exploratory and confirmatory factor analytic techniques were applied to data from a recent national telephone survey on health risk perception (N = 1503). Hazards assessed comprised an array of 30 items selected a...

The Centre of Expertise for Health and Environment started a biomonitoring campaign at the end of 2001, in Flanders (Belgium). The main purpose of this project, funded by the Flemish government, is to investigate the relationship between environmental pollution and human health. This is done by...

A large part of the research on risk in driving has been related to the consumption of alcohol and other substances. However, few studies have analysed risk behaviour in relation to road infrastructure. It took the dramatic accident in the Mont Blanc tunnel to highlight the lack of knowledge...