Types Of Risk Perceptions Research Articles

Linking Pathways from Perceived Absolute and Comparative Risk to Colorectal Cancer Screening Intention: Towards an Extended Cognitive Mediation Model

ABSTRACT Digital media platforms are crucial in providing health information to the public, including learning about cancer prevention strategies. Although the Cognitive Mediation Model (CMM) is a sound theoretical framework for explaining the underpinning process of health knowledge acquisition, one important remaining gap is how individuals are motivated to process health information through different discussion-generated elaboration strategies. To better understand the knowledge acquisition process, this paper extends the CMM in the context of colorectal cancer prevention. We introduced perceived absolute risk and perceived comparative risk as two distinct risk assessments as the antecedents facilitating individuals’ attention to cancer information on digital media, two types of interpersonal communication as discussion-generated elaboration strategies, and two dimensions of knowledge assessment in our extended CMM. Based on a nationally representative online survey among 965 Chinese public, we found that two types of risk perception were positively associated with paying attention to colorectal cancer information on digital media, which in turn facilitated both types of interpersonal communication. However, information processing strategies differed in leading to cancer knowledge and screening intention. Only subjective knowledge was positively associated with colorectal screening intention. Our findings offered implications for the literature and health promotion practices.

Role of Trust, Risk Perception, and Perceived Benefit in COVID-19 Vaccination Intention of the Public.

COVID-19 vaccination is an effective method for dealing with the COVID-19 pandemic. This study proposed and validated a theoretical intention model for explaining the COVID-19 vaccination intention (CVI) of the public. The theoretical intention model incorporated trust in vaccines, two types of risk perception (risk perception of COVID-19 and risk perception of COVID-19 vaccination), and perceived benefit into a theory of planned behavior (TPB). Structural equation modeling was utilized to test the theoretical intention model with data collected from 816 Chinese adults in China. The results confirmed the crucial role of trust in vaccines, risk perception, and perceived benefit in shaping the CVI of the public. In addition, TPB was found to be applicable in a research context. The theoretical intention model accounted for 78.8% of the variance in CVI. Based on the findings, several practical recommendations for improving COVID-19 vaccination rates were discussed.

Perceived risk and online purchase intention of selected public school teachers: A study in Calapan City, Oriental Mindoro, Philippines

Consumers’ perceived risk has been considered a fundamental concern of the decision-making process when shopping online. This study aims to examine the level of online shoppers’ intention towards online purchases as affected by perceived risks. The study used descriptive-correlational design to describe the extent of perceived risks in terms of product, financial, security, social, and time risk and the level of purchase intention of the participants. A total of 198 selected public school teachers in Calapan City were selected to ask participation in the survey to assess their five types of risk perceptions and online purchase intentions. Data were collected with the aid of online survey instruments. Results indicated a significant relationship between the extent of the perceived risks by the selected public school teachers in Calapan City in terms of product, financial, security, social, and time risk and the level of their purchase intention. Moreover, the result of the study shows that despite the risks they perceive in online shopping, they are still interested in online shopping, use it frequently, and consider shopping online more than shopping at physical stores.

Occupational health and safety risk perception

The perception of risk is an important element of many theories about changing safety behavior. Perceived risk is often subject to survival behavior change interventions. The perception of risk to occupational safety and health is an important factor in the success of the work accident prevention program. Risk perception is an important determinant of safety behavior, although the nature of the relationship between risk perception and safety behavior may depend on the profile of different types of risk perception and the accuracy of the perception. The perception of workers, both permanent and non-permanent workers, on occupational safety and health and accident prevention with risk perceptions is an important factor in the success of this accident prevention program. This study aims to find out more about adapting the TRIRISK model for intentionally perceived risk in the context of perception. By assessing the role of the deliberative, affective, and experiential dimensions of safety and health risks in the workplace. Quantitative research was conducted by means of a survey with a questionnaire. The survey was conducted from November to December 2021 and obtained as many as 102 respondents.

Risk-Likelihood Perceptions and Preventive Behaviors Against Infectious Diseases: Testing Different Types of Risk-Likelihood Perceptions in the Context of MERS and COVID-19

ABSTRACT Effective public health communication should take into the consideration how communicated risk perceptions might influence the public. Although many health behavior theories claim that high perceived risk likelihood motivates preventive health behaviors, this general prediction is complicated by different ways of estimating risk likelihood. Our review of 14 previous studies on perceived risk of infectious diseases revealed different measures of risk likelihood and inconsistent findings regarding the relationship between perceived risk likelihood and behavioral intention. Drawn from the review, we examined the predictive power of different types of risk likelihood on intention to prevent infectious diseases. Using two separate data sets, collected during the 2015 outbreak of the Middle East respiratory syndrome (N = 557) and the COVID-19 pandemic of 2021 (N = 1,001), we demonstrated that perceived risk likelihood that specifies future inaction on health behaviors (i.e., conditional absolute risk perception) better predicted behavioral intention than did other types of risk perceptions. When the effect of conditional absolute risk perception was controlled, the behavioral intention and unconditional absolute risk perception showed a negative relationship. The findings have theoretical and practical implications that can inform strategic communication during future outbreaks.

What influences tourist behaviors during and after the COVID-19 pandemic? Focusing on theories of risk, coping, and resilience

The threat of the COVID-19 pandemic poses risks and stress to travelers over the long term, impeding tourism demand recovery. This study aims to explore the behavioral consequences of potential tourists' personal perceptions of travel risks in pandemic threats. This study integrates risk communication and stress coping theory to address the research objectives and identifies interventions for psychological resilience. A sample of 1,179 potential adult travelers residing in Korea was surveyed online through quota sampling by age, gender, and region of residence, utilizing structural equation modeling to validate the proposed research model. The results showed that the two types of risk perception (personal- and societal-level) had different effects on problem-focused and emotion-focused coping strategies. It was also found that coping strategies, through psychological resilience, can change travel intentions during and after a pandemic. In particular, in terms of short-term stress relief, individuals using emotion-focused coping strategies during the COVID-19 pandemic have been shown to express a willingness to respond to negative emotions more quickly. Insightful implications for the recovery of tourism demand in response to the COVID-19 pandemic and strategies for managing crises in the tourism industry are provided.

High school students’ trust and risk perception of typhoon disaster: Moderating role of government ability in disaster management

Under global warming and environmental changes, coastal cities have witnessed significant typhoon disasters that attract considerable attention from scholars. Existing studies mainly focused on typhoon disaster prevention and reduction by examining the impact of the public's trust on risk perception. However, these studies overlooked the influence of government ability, even though government plays an important role in disaster management. Therefore, this study takes Ningbo, China as an example to analyze the impact of trust on risk perception and explore the role of government ability on the referred relationship. High school students are taken as the research targets as they are vulnerable but important in typhoon disaster mitigation, which may have been overlooked in existing studies. Regression is used to examine these relationships. The findings of this study are as follows. First, students' trust in meteorological departments, expert institutions, and government agencies positively impact economic, personal, and environmental risk perception. Second, government ability negatively moderates the relationships between students' trust in meteorological departments and expert institutions and all types of risk perception. Moreover, it only has a significant negative moderating effect on the relationship between students' trust in government agencies and economic risk perception. The study reveals the moderating role of government ability between trust and risk perception and provides references for further study on the relationship between trust and risk perception.

Examining the Role of Trust in Regulators in Food Safety Risk Assessment: A Cross-regional Analysis of Three Chinese Societies Using an Integrative Framework

Considerable efforts have been made to depict the causal patterns of trust, risk perception, and risk acceptance. Yet, it remains far from clear whether the established models are over-simplistic and to what extent the observed associations are contingent upon risk contexts. Extending the theorizing based on the Causal Chain model, this study adopts a comparative approach to examining the role of trust in regulators in the case of post-Fukushima food imports in Hong Kong, Mainland China, and Taiwan. Consistent with the proposed integrative framework, all three samples exhibited indirect relationships between trust in regulators and behavioral intentions through two types of risk perception (affective and cognitive risk perceptions) and risk acceptance. Findings showed that risk acceptance was the most prominent mediator in explaining the extended model and supported the necessity of distinguishing risk acceptance and behavioral intention as two self-contained constructs working in sequence. Moreover, trust in regulators showed the strongest predictivity in behavioral intentions in the Mainland China sample, while risk perception played a more important role in explaining outcome variables in the Hong Kong and Taiwan samples. In addition to contributing to theory building by presenting the external validity of the integrative framework across different political and food regulatory systems, the study demonstrates practical implications for regulatory authorities and risk communicators.

Developing and Validating Measures of Absolute and Relative E-Cigarette Product Risk Perceptions: Single Items Can Be Surprisingly Comprehensive.

Tobacco risk perceptions are important predictors of behavior and are impacted by tobacco communications. Our systematic literature review (completed in 2018) found there were no measures of e-cigarette risk perceptions that were completely consistent with tobacco researcher recommendations (eg, specifying use frequency) and had demonstrated validity and reliability. The current study develops measures to assess specific risk perceptions, including absolute risks and risks compared with cigarettes, nicotine replacement therapy, and all nicotine cessation. We generated a list of tobacco health effects based on our previous systematic review of tobacco risk perception measures. Based on health effects prioritized by regulatory science experts, we developed 63 items to assess seven types of e-cigarette risk perceptions: absolute health and addiction risks, health and addiction risks relative to cigarettes, pregnancy health risks relative to cigarettes, health risks relative to nicotine replacement therapy, and health risks relative to all nicotine cessation. We fielded these items in an online survey (N = 1642). Through reliability and validity analyses, we reduced this pool to 21 items, including many single-item measures. Supporting the measures' validity, each measure was negatively associated with current e-cigarette use, e-cigarette intentions, and skepticism about e-cigarette harms; and positively associated with perceiving e-cigarettes as equally or more harmful than cigarettes and intentions to quit e-cigarettes. This study developed and validated brief measures of several types of e-cigarette risk perceptions. Surprisingly, we found that for many types of risk perceptions, multi-item measures were redundant and these perceptions were well-represented by single-item measures. This study developed measures of seven types of e-cigarette health risk perceptions, including absolute health and addiction risk, and risk relative to cigarettes, nicotine replacement therapy, and cessation. We reduced 63 items to 21 to measure all of these constructs. These measures follow tobacco researcher recommendations, were developed using a rigorous measures development process, and demonstrated some aspects of reliability and validity. Because these measures are publicly available, they can be used by public health and industry researchers.

From Risk Butterflies to Citizens Engaged in Risk Prevention in the Zika Virus Crisis: Focusing on Personal, Societal and Global Risk Perceptions

This study investigates how posting information about the Zika virus on social media, and receiving information about Zika through the same platforms, are associated with personal, societal and global risk perceptions, and whether different types of risk perceptions are related to information seeking and preventive behavior intentions. A survey of U.S. participants (N = 958) revealed that posting information on social media is positively associated with personal and societal risk perceptions but not with global risk perceptions. Receiving information through social media, however, is positively associated with personal, societal and global risk perceptions. Personal and societal risk perceptions are associated with high information seeking intentions, which in turn leads to preventive behavioral intentions. The results suggest that so-called risk butterflies—those who frequently post information on social media—relate the health crisis to themselves and to their communities, and that these are important motivations for information-seeking and risk preventive behavior.

Intuitive biology, moral reasoning, and engineering life: Essentialist thinking and moral purity concerns shape risk assessments of synthetic biology technologies

The field of synthetic biology heralds a new era in our relationship with nature, as organisms are engineered to meet human goals. But little attention has been paid to potential cognitive constraints on reasoning about such technologies. Across four studies with American adults (N = 649), the present research investigates the proposal that essentialist reasoning and moral purity concerns conspire to shape risk assessments of engineered organisms. Moral purity concerns but not moral harm concerns predict moral wrongness judgments of adding a foreign gene to a plant (Studies 1, 2 & 4), as well as assessments of risk (Studies 1 and 2), and risk of harm from eating (Study 4). Adding a gene from a taxonomically distant organism is considered more morally wrong (Studies 2, 3 and 4), more risky (Studies 2 & 3), and more risky to eat (Study 4), than adding either a gene from a similar organism or a new-to-nature gene. Assessments of the risk of gene spread follow a different pattern, with the new-to-nature gene considered safest (Study 4). The findings support the proposal that gene change is reasoned about as essence change that threatens notions of moral purity, with direct implications for certain types of risk perceptions (eating), but not others (gene spread). The findings elucidate cognitive constraints on risk perceptions of synthetic biology, shed fresh light on essentialist and moral reasoning in a novel biological context, and demonstrate the need to differentiate between both risk context and risk type in cognitive accounts of risk perception.

Influenced by Anonymous Others: Effects of Online Comments on Risk Perception and Intention to Communicate

ABSTRACT Guided by the health risk communication literature and the social identity model of deindividualization effects, this study examines whether and how concurrent exposure to health news articles and congruent/incongruent comments posted by anonymous others may affect news viewers’ personal risk perception, societal risk perception, and intention to communicate about health risk issues. Two controlled experiments were conducted in Vietnam concerning two controversial health risk issues, including ear picking and child corporal punishment. Results showed a significant interaction effect between comments and perceived similarity on personal risk perception and societal risk perception, such that comments influenced both types of risk perception when viewers perceived that anonymous commenters were ingroup members. Results also indicated the joint effect of comments and perceived similarity on participants’ intention to communicate, mediated by their personal risk perception and societal risk perception. Theoretical and practical implications were discussed.

Community participation effects on preparedness behaviour through risk perception: Empirical data of hazardous chemicals from China

This study explores the relationship among community participation, risk perception and preparedness behaviour in the context of hazardous chemicals risk. Community participation is divided into top-down community participation and bottom-up community participation, and the types of risk perception (threat perception, resource-related preparedness behaviour perception, hazard-related preparedness behaviour perception, stakeholder perception) are introduced in the relationship of community participation and preparedness behaviour as mediators. Based on the 1700 questionnaires about dangerous chemicals collected from China, the direct model, four single-mediator models and the multi-mediator model are tested by the structural equation method. The results showed that (1) top-down community participation has a positive impact on preparedness behaviour intention, while bottom-up community participation has a negative impact. (2) Threat perception has no impact on the relationship between community participation and preparedness behaviour intention, while (3) hazard-related preparedness behaviour perception and stakeholder perception have a partially positive mediating impact. (4) Resource-related preparedness behaviour perception has a positive mediating role between top-down community participation and preparedness behaviour intention, but (5) a negative mediating role between bottom-up community participation and preparedness behaviour intention. In addition, there are concealment effects among the mediating roles of the four risk perceptions, which indicates that (6) the mediating role of hazard-related preparedness behaviour perception could be substituted by stakeholder perception and that (7) the mediating role of resource-related preparedness behaviour perception is stronger than stakeholder perception. This current study provides insight regarding the influence of community participation on individual preparedness behaviour in the pre-disaster stage.

Risk perceptions and mining-induced displacement and resettlement: a case study from Anhui Province, China

ABSTRACT Based on data obtained from a survey conducted in the Liang Huai coal mining area in Anhui Province, the author analyzed the risk perception of a group of affected persons (APs) regarding the reality of relocation and their willingness to move. The purpose was to test the scales created and analyze as a whole the most significant predictors found in the pervious literature. The results show that the individual characteristics of APs and the resettlement compensation model have a greater impact on the risk perception of resettlement. According to the analysis results of the four types of risk perception, the effects of various types of influencing factors on the risk perception of relocation are different. AP's perception of the risk of relocation is actually a complicated process. It is influenced by both subjective and non-subjective factors and by rational and irrational factors and is the result of multiple factors. The perceived risk of affected households is characterized by system complexity, multi-factor correlation, regional differences and particularity.

Understanding the Effects of Message Framing on Physical Activity Action Planning: the Role of Risk Perception and Elaboration.

This study aimed to determine the effects of action planning, risk perception, and message elaboration on the creation and quality of physical activity action plans. Risk perception was hypothesized as a potential moderator and elaboration as a potential mediator of the message framing-action planning relationship. Inactive adults (N = 180; 44% women; Mage= 29.7, SD = 9.92) were randomized to one of two framed action planning messages and responded to an online questionnaire pre- and post-message. Participants were asked about two types of risk perception towards action planning: emotional and plan creation risk perception. Post-message participants were asked about their elaboration regarding the message and presented with the opportunity to create action plans, which were scored for quality. A moderation model and a moderated mediation model were tested. Emotional risk perception moderated the message framing-action plan creation relationship. Individuals with increased emotional risk perception, as opposed to increased plan creation risk perception, were more likely to create an action plan when given a gain-framed message, as opposed to a loss-framed message. The moderated mediation model was not significant, but message elaboration predicted action plan creation. Individuals with greater message elaboration were more likely to create an action plan, regardless of the message frame. Gain-framed messages may be more effective than loss-framed messages at promoting action plan creation in individuals with greater emotional risk perception. One's elaboration of an action planning message may increase their likelihood of creating a physical activity action plan.

When does risk perception predict protection motivation for health threats? A person-by-situation analysis.

Although risk perception is a key concept in many health behavior theories, little research has explicitly tested when risk perception predicts motivation to take protective action against a health threat (protection motivation). The present study tackled this question by (a) adopting a multidimensional model of risk perception that comprises deliberative, affective, and experiential components (the TRIRISK model), and (b) taking a person-by-situation approach. We leveraged a highly intensive within-subjects paradigm to test features of the health threat (i.e., perceived severity) and individual differences (e.g., emotion reappraisal) as moderators of the relationship between the three types of risk perception and protection motivation in a within-subjects design. Multi-level modeling of 2968 observations (32 health threats across 94 participants) showed interactions among the TRIRISK components and moderation both by person-level and situational factors. For instance, affective risk perception better predicted protection motivation when deliberative risk perception was high, when the threat was less severe, and among participants who engage less in emotional reappraisal. These findings support the TRIRISK model and offer new insights into when risk perceptions predict protection motivation.

The Influence of Absolute and Comparative Risk Perceptions on Cervical Cancer Screening and the Mediating Role of Cancer Worry

This research investigates the interrelationships between cancer risk perceptions (absolute and comparative risk perceptions), cancer worry, and cervical cancer screening. Using a nationally representative survey data set (N = 2,304) from the 2012 Health Information National Trends Survey Circle 1, we found that although neither absolute risk perceptions nor comparative risk perceptions exerted a direct impact on women's compliance with the cervical cancer screening recommendation (i.e., that women ages 21 to 65 obtain Pap smear every 3 years; U.S. Preventive Services Task Force, 2012), both types of risk perceptions had an indirect effect on cervical cancer screening through the mediation of cancer worry. These results suggest a primal role of affect in health decision making. Implications of the findings for cancer risk communication are discussed.

Communication, neighbourhood belonging and household hurricane preparedness

This paper reports on an examination of data on how local residents in Tuscaloosa, a mid-sized city in the state of Alabama, United States, responded to Hurricane Ivan of September 2004. The evaluation revealed that an integrated connection to community-level communication resources-comprising local media, community organisations and interpersonal networks-has a direct impact on the likelihood of engaging in pre-hurricane preparedness activities and an indirect effect on during-hurricane preparedness activities. Neighbourhood belonging mediated the relation between an integrated connection to community-level communication resources and during-hurricane preparedness activities. Neighbourhood belonging was determined to increase the likelihood of taking preparedness actions during Hurricane Ivan, but not prior to it. In addition, we discovered an interesting pattern for two different types of risk perceptions: social and personal risk perceptions. Social risk perceptions increase the likelihood of taking preventative steps before a hurricane while personal risk perceptions are positively related to engaging in preventative action during a hurricane.

Determinants of Health Risk Perception Among Low-risk-taking Tourists Traveling to Developing Countries

This article focuses on tourists’ perception of health risk among tourists who intend to travel to developing countries. It examines the relative importance tourists assign to this risk. It unveils the factors that shape health risk perceptions and explores the relative role of each factor in shaping tourists’ perception. With a sample of 232 and a self-administered questionnaire, the study interviewed visitors at a travelers medical clinic before their trip. Using ordered logistic regression, the results show that health risk perception ranks relatively high against other types of risk perception. The study unveiled the relative contribution of the various determinants to the overall travelers’ perception of health risk. Furthermore, three groups of perception-type hierarchy were discovered, representing levels of importance and tourists’ potential behavioral control: first, difficult-to-control environmental components; second, partially behaviorally controllable by the tourist; third, fully behaviorally controlled types of health risks perceptions.