Risk Communication Measuring Confidence in Hazard Claims: Gender Differences in the Perception of Risk
John D. Graham, Harvard Center for Risk Analysis, Harvard School of Public Health, Boston, MA 02115
This study involves the degree of confidence lay people and scientists have in hazard claims publicized by the mass media. Confidence levels for different hazards were compared and related to individual respondent characteristics. A survey of 1,019 residents of the United States by random digit-dial telephone and by mail to 264 scientists was conducted. Mean hazard confidence scores were elicited on a scale from zero to 10, where zero indicates complete confidence that a hazard does not exist and 10 indicates complete confidence that a hazard does exist. A gender effect was noticed among scientists as well as lay people, although female scientists tended to express less confidence in hazard claims than lay females. Hazards studied included claims made about pesticides on food, electric and magnetic fields, global warming, ozone depletion, environmental tobacco smoke, radon, dust and particles in city air, violence in daily life, radiation from medical X-rays, and cigarette smoking. Interesting differences were evident in response to an exploratory question regarding explanations for the reported rise of breast cancer. The roles of delay of first delivery, using estrogen therapy, and breast feeding were also examined for confidence levels evoked.