Temporal stability and changes in risk perception rankings of hazardous activities and technologies

Researchers have extensively studied risk perceptions of hazardous activities and technologies to better understand how to analyze risk to inform and improve risk communications and risk management policy-making in various facets of society. Despite the existence of such studies, there is limited research on how stable or different risk perceptions of various activities and technologies are across time. A better understanding of the temporal aspect of risk perceptions can lead to more effective policy responses by ensuring that policies based on risk perceptions continuously reflect current public risk perceptions. Hence, the purpose of this descriptive study is to explore the question: ‘How stable or different are risk perceptions of hazardous activities and technologies over time?’ To answer this question, this study compares the risk rankings for 29 hazardous activities (e.g. smoking cigarettes) and technologies (e.g. driving a motor vehicle) from a risk perception survey of 2008 U.S. employees conducted in 2014 with similar 29 items from Slovic to his colleagues’ 1976/1977 survey. Specifically, we use Spearman’s rank order correlation to compare the risk rankings by Slovic and his colleagues’ three lay groups – League of Women Voters, college students, and active club members – with the risk rankings by similar lay groups from the Pacific Region in the 2014 survey. In general, the results of this descriptive study indicate some stability of risk perception over time, but some interesting differences remain. This study concludes by suggesting future research topic areas on risk perceptions of hazardous activities and technologies.