Risk perception and risk management: on knowledge, resource allocation and equity

This article is an outgrowth of the opening article given at a pair of invited sessions on “Risk Perception versus Risk Analysis” at the PSAM 3 Conference held on Crete in June 1996. The first introductory section provides some review of the relevant issues and raises some general questions about possible changes in the emphasis and directions of research on risk perception and related social science studies. The second section looks in a little more detail at issues related to public participation in the deliberations and decision-making concerning significant societal ventures involving risk. Section 3 examines the role and importance of knowledge in risk perception. the relatively brief fourth section raises questions about the publicʹs perception of geologic disposal of high-level radioactive wastes as something catastrophic, to be “dreaded”. Section 5 looks at the bases for allocation of resources for improving the public health and safety. And the sixth section examines intragenerational equity and the conflict which can arise between it and intergenerational equity.