Abstract
After the 2011 “Oxy accident” involving deaths from humidifier disinfectants, Korean consumers’ anxiety about chemical products has risen. To provide timely, appropriate information to consumers, we must understand their risk recognition and explore methods of safety information provision. We investigated Korean consumers’ level of risk perception for chemical products depending on the provision of safety information and other factors. We conducted an online survey for 10 days with 600 adult Korean consumer participants and analyzed seven factors: catastrophic potential, controllability, familiarity, fear, scientific knowledge, and risk for future generations. Our results showed that married women over 30 perceived chemical products as higher risk, but when information was provided on how to use products safely, catastrophic potential, controllability, fear, scientific knowledge, as well as risk perception, increased significantly. When only risk diagnosis information was provided, catastrophic potential, fear, and risk for future generations remained static, but familiarity had a negative effect (R^2 = 0.586). Age and scientific knowledge affected the recognition of risk when safe risk management methods were provided (R^2 = 0.587). Risk controllability did not have any effect on risk perception. These results suggest that providing information about avoiding or dealing with risks has a positive effect on consumers’ risk perception.
Highlights
As science and technology continue to develop, consumer goods, including home appliances, household goods, and foods, are becoming increasingly specialized
Our results suggest that providing information about how to avoid or deal with risks had positive effects on consumers’ risk perception
Our study showed that risk management methods must be provided along with risk diagnostic information when providing risk information about products to consumers
Summary
As science and technology continue to develop, consumer goods, including home appliances, household goods, and foods, are becoming increasingly specialized. The problem is that consumer goods containing heavy metals, residual pesticides, food additives, or traces of antibiotics in animal products act as potential risks for consumer safety [1,2,3,4]. In South Korea, consumers’ anxiety about and distrust of chemical products have risen to such an extent that a new word, chemophobia, has been coined. Behind this fear is a 2011 incident referred to as “the worst biocide incident” [5,6], in which humidifier sterilizers containing a toxic substance caused many deaths among pregnant women and young children from lung disease and asthma.
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