Intuitive Toxicology. II. Expert and Lay Judgments of Chemical Risks in Canada

Abstract

This study is a replication and extension in Canada of a previous study in the United States in which toxicologists and members of the public were surveyed to determine their attitudes, beliefs, and perceptions regarding risks from chemicals. This study of "intuitive vs. scientific showed that Canadian toxicologists had far lower perceptions of risk and more favorable attitudes toward chemicals than did the Canadian public. The public's attitudes were quite negative and showed the same lack of dose-response sensitivity found in the earlier U.S. study. Both the public and the toxicologists lacked confidence in the value of animal studies for predicting human health risks. However, the public had great confidence in the validity of animal studies that found evidence of carcinogenicity, whereas such evidence was not considered highly predictive of human health risk by many toxicologists. Technical judgments of toxicologists were found to be associated with factors such as affiliation, gender, and worldviews. Implications of these data for risk communication are briefly discussed.

Gender and place influences on health risk perspectives in northern Canadian Aboriginal communities

“…Second, the responses to a multi-part question asking participants to rank a series of risks on a 5-point Likert scale (ranging from 1 ¼ 'not dangerous at all' to 5 ¼ 'very dangerous') were examined with respect to demographic relationships. This approach was consistent with previous risk perception research (Slovic et al 1993(Slovic et al , 1995Krewski et al 1995aKrewski et al , 1995b. People were asked 'In your opinion, how dangerous are the following things to your health?…”

Health risk perception in Canada II: Worldviews, attitudes and opinions

“…The results of a comparative survey of experts (members of the Canadian Society-of Toxicology) will be reported separately (10).…”

Risk communication in consultations about hormone therapy in the menopause: concordance in risk assessment and framing due to the context

“…The lay person's anticipation of future events differs however often from the opinion of experts 23,24 . This is not surprising since most of our daily decisions are based on insufficient …”