Social amplification of risk and extreme events

Abstract

A perplexing problem in risk analysis is why some relatively minor hazards or hazard events (as assessed by technical experts) elicit strong public concerns and why other extreme hazards are tolerated and generate little public reaction. This chapter describes an approach, the social amplification of risk framework, for understanding and accounting for public attitudes and responses toward risk. Risk amplification typically occurs at two stages in a risk scenario: in the transfer of information about risk and in social response mechanisms. Social amplification may qualitatively and quantitatively increase not only the perception of risk but also the risk itself and its consequences. Social amplification of risk denotes the phenomenon by which information processes, institutional structures, social group behavior, and individual responses shape the social experience of risk, thereby contributing to risk consequences. The concept of rippling impacts suggests processes that can extend (in risk amplification) or constrain (in risk attenuation) temporal, sectoral, and geographical impacts.