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Smoking Status and Public Responses to Ambiguous Scientific Risk Evidence

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  • W. Kip Viscusi
  • Wesley A. Magat
  • Joel Huber

Abstract

Situations in which individuals receive information seldom involve scientific consensus over the level of the risk. When scientific experts disagree, people may process the information in an unpredictable manner. The original data presented here for environmental risk judgments indicate a tendency to place disproportionate weight on the high risk assessment, irrespective of its source, particularly when the experts disagree. Cigarette smokers differ in their risk information processing from nonsmokers in that they place less weight on the high risk judgment when there is a divergence in expert opinion. Consequently, they are more likely to simply average competing risk assessments.

Suggested Citation

  • W. Kip Viscusi & Wesley A. Magat & Joel Huber, 1999. "Smoking Status and Public Responses to Ambiguous Scientific Risk Evidence," Southern Economic Journal, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 66(2), pages 250-270, October.
    • Handle: RePEc:wly:soecon:v:66:y:1999:i:2:p:250-270
    DOI: 10.1002/j.2325-8012.1999.tb00246.x
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    1. Viscusi, W Kip, 1997. "Alarmist Decisions with Divergent Risk Information," Economic Journal, Royal Economic Society, vol. 107(445), pages 1657-1670, November.
    2. Wesley A. Magat & W. Kip Viscusi, 1992. "Informational Approaches to Regulation," MIT Press Books, The MIT Press, edition 1, volume 1, number 026213277x, December.
    3. Viscusi, W. Kip, 1998. "Rational Risk Policy: The 1996 Arne Ryde Memorial Lectures," OUP Catalogue, Oxford University Press, number 9780198293637.
    4. Daniel Ellsberg, 1961. "Risk, Ambiguity, and the Savage Axioms," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 75(4), pages 643-669.
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