The concept of risk is an outgrowth of our society's great concern about coping with the dangers of modern life. "The Perception of Risk" brings together the work of Paul Slovic, one of the world's leading analysts of risk, risk perception and risk management. Distributed by Syndetic Solutions, Inc.

Paul Slovic is President of Decision Research and Professor of Psychology at the University of Oregon Distributed by Syndetic Solutions, Inc.

List of Figures	viii
List of Tables	xi
Foreword	xv
Acknowledgments	xvii
Acronyms and Abbreviations	xix
Introduction and Overview	xxi
1 Decision Processes, Rationality and Adjustment to Natural Hazards	1
2 Cognitive Processes and Societal Risk Taking	32
3 Preference for Insuring Against Probable Small Losses: Insurance Implications	51
4 Accident Probabilities and Seat Belt Usage: A Psychological Perspective	73
5 How Safe Is Safe Enough? A Psychometric Study of Attitudes Toward Technological Risks and Benefits	80
6 Rating the Risks	104
7 Weighing the Risks: Which Risks are Acceptable?	121
8 Facts and Fears: Understanding Perceived Risk	137
9 Response Mode, Framing and Information-processing Effects in Risk Assessment	154
10 The Nature of Technological Hazard	168
11 Informing and Educating the Public about Risk	182
12 Perception of Risk from Automobile Safety Defects	199
13 Perception of Risk	220
14 The Social Amplification of Risk: A Conceptual Framework	232
15 The Perception and Management of Therapeutic Risk	246
16 Perception of Risk from Radiation	264
17 Perceived Risk, Trust and the Politics of Nuclear Waste	275
18 Intuitive Toxicology: Expert and Lay Judgments of Chemical Risks	285
19 Perceived Risk, Trust and Democracy	316
20 Adolescent Health-threatening and Health-enhancing Behaviors: A Study of Word Association and Imagery	327
21 Technological Stigma	341
22 Probability, Danger and Coercion: A Study of Risk Perception and Decision-making in Mental Health Law	347
23 Do Adolescent Smokers Know the Risks?	364
24 Insensitivity to the Value of a Human Life: A Study of Psychophysical Numbing	372
25 Trust, Emotion, Sex, Politics and Science: Surveying the Risk-assessment Battlefield	390
26 The Affect Heuristic in Judgments of Risks and Benefits	413
References	430
Index	462

Distributed by Syndetic Solutions, Inc.