In the first chapter
Cho, Reimer, and McComas (2015) provided an outline of the idea of risk perception. They investigated risk perception psychology and risk construction sociology as the foundation for how various parties estimate and convey danger. They also covered risk communication's four components: 1) models, 2) audiences, 3) messages, and 4) media. Finally, they explored the interpersonal, organizational, and public contexts of risk communication in order to illustrate how the theoretical frameworks outlined above interact with the components of risk perception in real-world settings.
Bodemer and Gaissmaier (2015)
Bodemer and Gaissmaier (2015) began the discussion of risk perception by looking into the concept of psychometric paradigm in Chapter 1, in which "psychophysical scaling and multi-variate techniques" (p.11) are used to explain how people react to risks. Meanwhile, they also discussed the social implications of risk perception, in which the chain of message from the sender to the receiver may reduce or amplify the real value of risk.
Hertwig and Frey (2015)
Hertwig and Frey (2015) then discussed the gap between description and experience in communication risk. According to them, the gap is a result of the objective perspective of experts when defining risks versus the qualitative perspective of the public when evaluating hazards. They gave three scenarios to exemplify this gap. The first scenario was vaccination, in which parents (who read that a small percentage of children can develop high fever and experience seizures after receiving DTaP vaccination) choose not to vaccinate their children whereas doctors (who have years of experience and are aware of the improbability of side effects) are certain that children should receive this vaccination. Hetwig and Frey (2015) also used terrorism and natural hazards as examples of the description-experience gap.
References
Cho. H.Y., Reimer, T., & McComas, K.A. (2015). Explicating communication in risk communication. In H.Y. Cho, T. Reimer, & K.A. McComas (Eds.), The SAGE handbook of risk communication (pp. 1-5). Thousand Oaks, CA: SAGE Publications Inc.
Bodemer, N. & Gaissmaier, W. (2015). Risk perception. In H.Y. Cho, T. Reimer, & K.A. McComas (Eds.), The SAGE handbook of risk communication (pp. 10-23). Thousand Oaks, CA: SAGE Publications Inc.
Hertwig, R. & Frey, R. (2015). The challenge of the description-experience gap of the communication of risks. In H.Y. Cho, T. Reimer, & K.A. McComas (Eds.), The SAGE handbook of risk communication (pp. 24-40). Thousand Oaks, CA: SAGE Publications Inc.
