Public Perceptions of Industrial Risks: The Context of Public Attitudes Toward Radioactive Waste

The generation of knowledge regarding public risk perception general, and perception of risks associated with nuclear power and radioactive waste management in particular, requires the development and use of appropriate survey methodologies. One of the fundamental limitations of many studies of public risk perception is the assumption on the part of the investigators of similarity between themselves and their respondents. In such studies respondents are required to deal with problems of interest to and structured by the investigators. If a particular study includes heterogeneous groups, many of the respondents could differ significantly from the investigators. These respondents could find themselves being asked to provide opinions and judgments about issues and problems they had never before considered, which could produce misleading results. An attempt was made in the present study to deal with this methodological issue through the use of "free response" survey items, which allow respondents to structure their responses in ways that make sense to them.