Social Amplification and Attenuation of Risk ( Kasperson et al., in Cutter: Ch 9 )

1. Geography 106bHazards Social Amplification and Attenuation of Risk(Kasperson et al., in Cutter: Ch 9) • problem • heuristic framework • concepts • examples • implications Geog 152b

2. Problem • “After a decade of research on the public experience of risk, no comprehensive theory exists to explain why apparently minor risk or risk events, as assessed by technical experts, sometimes produce massive public reactions, accompanied by substantial social and economic impacts and sometimes even by subsequently increased physical risk.” (Kasperson et al., 1988, 178) Geog 152b

3. Exercise:Evocative Hazards/Events • Name some hazards or events that typically evoke “massive public reactions”. • What are some potentially negative impacts of such reactions (perhaps categorize those impacts)? Geog 152b

4. Evocative HazardsUrban Pesticides What is the message?: • “Canadians take pride in having attractive lawns around their homes and many use lawn care products to maintain them. However, pesticide use for lawn care has become an issue in many communities across Canada, due to an increased awareness of the potential impact that human activities can have on our shared environment.” (emphasis added) Health Canada It’s Your Health Geog 152b

5. Evocative HazardsUrban Pesticides Audubon Society’s view: • “Pesticides pose health risks, even when used and applied in full compliance with manufacturers’ recommendations and legal requirements.” (Eliot Spitzer New York State Attorney General) one reason for difference: • scientific uncertainty = void to fill Geog 152b

6. Exercise:Banal But Serious Hazards/Events • Name some hazards or events that are known to be serious, but typically evoke little public reactions. • Why do people (we) react this way? Geog 152b

7. Not-So Banal Hazard Risk • “According to a Consumers Union study done a few years ago, eating peanut butter that contains an average level of only two parts per billion of aflatoxin once every 10 days would present a cancer risk of seven in one million. Small as that may seem, it's higher than the estimated risk of cancer from most pesticides.” Source: DrWeil.com Geog 152b

8. Not-So Banal Hazard Risk • “…radon in indoor air is estimated to cause about 21,000 lung cancer deaths each year in the United States. Smokers are at higher risk of developing Radon-induced lung cancer.” Source: http://www.epa.gov/iaq/radon/radonqa1.html See Health Canada “home exposure could pose risk” Video Radon risk awareness commercial Geog 152b

9. Social Amplification/Attenuation of Risk Concepts amplification • a process • hazards or events low probability as assessed by experts • elicit strong public concern • produces severe social impacts attenuation • a process • hazards or events comparatively serious physical impacts, and comparatively high probability • elicit weak public concern • ongoing physical impacts Geog 152b

10. Social Amplification/Attenuation of Risk Thesis • hazard events interact with psychological, social and cultural processes in ways that heighten or attenuate public perception • “secondary” and even “tertiary” consequences • all scales: individual, group, community and beyond Geog 152b

11. Social Amplification of Risk Framework Geog 152b

12. Concepts Continued hazard event • an event involving a technological hazard that may or may not pose a human threat • e.g. release of new study; acute event like a hazardous “leak” transmitter (source) • generates and sends risk message(s) signals • the message(s) itself Geog 152b

13. Concepts Continued intermediate transmitters • relay stations for the messages (e.g., the media, emergency response agencies) • signal (message) is modified at each intermediate transmitter receivers • target audience(s) for message signals • original signal may be considerably modified by the time it is received Geog 152b

14. Concepts ContinuedMessage Contents factual • content of message and evidence to support it – e.g. substance X causes cancer • source of message – e.g., Environment Canada inferential (social value component) • conclusions that can be drawn from factual portion symbolic cultural • evocative imagery to get the point across – e.g., “big business”, “interest groups”, “Ottawa” Geog 152b

15. Symbolic Cultural Meaning Geog 152b

16. Concepts Continued mechanisms of interpretation and response heuristics and values • hazard risks are (necessarily) simplified • see also risk perception lecture • values/worldviews (e.g., egalitarian - more on this next day) social group relations and scale • interpretation is a complex social process • thinking, and more importantly, acting in response to a hazards has social consequences • individual • groups (e.g., family, co-workers) • community (e.g., neighbourhood, entire town/city) Geog 152b

17. Interpretation and Responsepower of “group” membership • INT: What kind of risks does the plant pose to you? • JENNY (unconcerned, resident): Well, our health. Like maybe they don't know maybe as much as they think they know. And so of course they're not telling us and we are you know eating and drinking and carrying on and maybe we won't see anything until our kids have kids you know. But, I still don't believe that. I don't know if I'm just being stubborn, because people have put our town down for so long I'm being very stubborn about it, I just refuse to listen to anything that's said about it. I find out for myself and you know. (Source: Baxter and Lee (2004), Understanding expressed low concern and latent concern near a hazardous waste treatment facility, Journal of Risk Research, 7(7-8)) Geog 152b

18. Interpretation and Responsepower of “group” membership • INT: So you're saying that you're not concerned about your health or your children's health, or family's health, why is that? When other people are supposedly... • HELEN (unconcerned, resident-leader): Cause I don't think PCBs are gonna kill me. I don't think PCBs are that dangerous that I can die from it. My common‑law husband worked out there for a while, his PCB levels had went up, of course I mean he worked out there it was going to happen. They monitored him quite regularly, I think he was tested I think every three months. And his levels went up and down and up and down and I asked him one night, are you concerned about this do you think you're going to be affected? And he said no. My doctor, when, I just had, I have a three month old baby and when I was going through my first stage of my pregnancy the doctor had asked me if I was concerned with PCBs? No I'm not and don't ever bring it up again (laughing). (Source: Baxter and Lee, 2004) Geog 152b

19. Concepts Continued mechanisms of interpretation and response signal value • see “dread” in risk perception literature/lecture • see “message contents” above • high consequence hazards that are less familiar – e.g. Chernobyl, TMI stigmatization • process by which negative images are ascribed to places, technologies and people • (notice “stigma” is also an “impact”) Geog 152b

20. Concepts ContinuedImpacts conceptually tight interconnection of: spread of impact (ripple effects) • impacts spread like ripples out from local victims • impacts often extend beyond the local area • whole countries, technologies (e.g, Tylenol), industries (e.g., beef) can be affected secondary impacts • e.g., mental imagery and stigmatization, property values, retail and agricultural sales, social order (protests), insurance, trust in institutions Geog 152b

21. Secondary ImpactsStigma and Property Values • stigma and property values are typically intertwined • table shows significant differences between house prices in fire affected and non-affected areas of Phoenix after a fire government deemed very low risk Source: Pijawka et al., (2001) Environmental stigma and equity in central cities, in Flynn, J. et al. Risk Media and Stigma, 187-201. Geog 152b

22. Secondary ImpactsStigma and Place • Yucca Mountain is the preferred site for high level US nuclear waste • several studies have highlighted the stigma impacts, extending potentially as far as Las Vegas Geog 152b

23. Implications Question: • If we accept this framework as reasonable, what implications does this have for policy (e.g., government action)? Geog 152b

24. End of Lecture Geog 152b

25. Exercise:Message Contents • Read the handout of the Health Canada publication “Drinking Water Chlorination” • List the • factual • inferential • symbolic cultural messages contained in the document. • Read the St. John’s Telegram article “Province using old information: Health Canada official” and do the same Geog 152b