Wahrnehmung und Akzeptanz technischer Risiken Band I : Zur Theorie der Risikoakzeptanz - Forschungsansätze und Modelle

The following reports deal with the perception and acceptance of technological risk sources by the general public. The reports contain a systematic summary of the relevant literature in this field and a series of empirical investigations which enable us to achieve a better understanding of the risk perception process and attitude formation. For this purpose two experimental surveys have been conducted to reveal cognitive structures when information on risk sources is processed, and to investigate intuitive weighing in the field of risk evaluation. These surveys have also been made by a team of U.S.- psychologists so that a comparison between the German and American data could be performed. The data were further validated by two psychological experiments on the influence of qualitative risk properties. As risk perception was understood as a procedure in which cognitive elements and their subjective evaluations are eventually combined, the end point of perception was regarded to be identical with the formation of an attitude. In order to describe this process, a specific survey was conducted dealing with the attitudes of the general public towards nuclear energy. One of the most interesting results is the finding that the perception of different risk objects is rather similar in Germany and the US. It is surprising, too, that, contrary to the common conception by natural scientists, people in general have a good estimative ability to judge the expected value of different risks. But beyond this estimation of fatalities people also use other criteria (like personal control) to order different objects with respect to their riskiness. Values connected with special objects and projective beliefs seem to play a major role in making risk judgements. In the field of attitude measurement we found out that proponents of nuclear energy have a rather inconsistent and contradictive belief system (cognitive stress), whereas the opponents of nuclear energy are very consistent andhomogenious in their attitudes, but they have lost their faith in the chance of implementing their antinuclear option in the real world (reality stress). The reports are written in German, an English translation of a short version is in press