The public perception

of precaution In their recent Talking Point articles, Martin Peterson and Andrew Stirling debated whether the precautionary principle could act as a basis for rational decision-making in the face of unknown or unclear dangers (Peterson, 2007; Stirling, 2007). In addition to the problem of measuring the effectiveness of implementation, there is— more fundamentally—little understanding at present of how implementing the precau-tionary principle can affect the public’s per-ception of risk. This is of special importance considering that, in the absence of clear evidence, the perception of risk often drives a debate and any subsequent requests for a precautionary approach