Improving Risk Communication (1989) / Chapter Skim
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4 Purposes of Risk Communication and Risk Messages
4 Purposes of Risk Communication and Risk Messages
Pages 72-93
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From page 72... ...
Finally, we address the thorny ethical problem of the appropriateness of influencing as a purpose of risk messages, particularly messages that public agencies distribute to citizens. SETTINGS OF RISE COMMUNICATION Public Debate In a setting of public debate such as congressional hearings, congressional debates, formal regulatory adjudication, and noticeand-comment rule making democratic risk communication includes a wide range of messages, sources, and audiences.
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From page 73... ...
In state and local governments, debates have also proceeded on options such as banning cigarette advertisements in some public places, raising the minimum age for purchasing tobacco products, banning smoking in municipal buildings, and requiring no-smoking sections in restaurants. Risk communication varies from one of these decision-making arenas to another.
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From page 74... ...
We consider risk communication in a setting of public debate successful to the extent that it raises the [eve! of understanding of relevant issues or actions among the affected and interested parties and those involved are satisfied that they are adequately informed within the limits of available knowledge.
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From page 75... ...
If accurate information is rejected by recipients, it does nothing to increase their knowledge base hence the requirement that recipients of information for public debate be satisfied that they are adequately informed. Both of the above-mentioned requirements for successful risk communication were factors in the public debate that resulted in the successful siting of the ECOFLO hazardous waste facility in Greensboro, North Carolina.
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From page 76... ...
Although representing a situation somewhat less problematic than those encountered elsewhere the company proposed a treatment facility to reduce the overall amount of toxic material in that locale it does illustrate the role of communication efforts in the siting of a hazardous waste facility. The siting of such plants is notoriously difficult.
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From page 77... ...
Jim Rayburn, chair of the Guilford County Advisory Board on Environmental Affairs (Lynn, 19873. At this meeting Barbee detailed how he had made changes in his original proposal based on feedback from the fire department, the planning commission, and the task force, among others.
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From page 78... ...
Such policies create a risk communication setting much different from that of public decision making, particularly because they call for specialized risk messages. Congress has sanctioned efforts by government officials, including the surgeon general and other medical experts, to design and disseminate messages aimed at changing individual behavior.
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From page 79... ...
But we have not gone so far as to include this an a criterion for success. Getting recipients' attention and comprehension poses significant barriers to risk communication, especially in the arena of personal action, where many recipients customarily act without carefully considering risks and benefits.
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From page 80... ...
INFORMATION AND INFLUENCE: THE PURPOSES OF RISE MESSAGES We have noted that successful risk communication, such as that described in the ECOFLO case, makes for better-informed decision makers, both individuals and public or private officials. A "successful" risk message, in contrast, is not always one that increases the understanding of decision makers.
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From page 81... ...
Although the purpose of informing is consistent with the goal of successful risk communication to raise decision makers' level of understanding-the use of techniques that aim to persuade, deceive, or otherwise influence decision makers implies that a different goal is being pursued. l~fo~mation To inform someone about an issue or choice is to assist that person to apprehend the relevant propositions or statements that describe the issue or choice.
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From page 82... ...
For instance, message designers choose whether to summarize knowledge about both possible deaths and illnesses arising from a risk or only about deaths, about both direct and synergistic effects or only direct effects, about effects on subpopulations including sensitive groups or just on whole populations, and so forth. Having
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From page 83... ...
A large psychological literature demonstrates that highlighting information, or making it more "available," affects the understanding and the decisions of those who receive the messages (Fiske and Taylor, 1984; Kahneman et al., 1982; Tversky and Kahneman, 19733. Thus highlighting can influence the audience's beliefs about what aspects of a risk decision are important in the direction desired by the message designer.
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From page 84... ...
IMPROVING RISK COMMUNICATION Persuasive Use of Facts Risk messages often involve a selection of the facts to make a point. Messages aimed at convincing recipients of a point of view can use techniques of highlighting and framing but can also employ other rhetorical techniques: selective presentation of evidence, creation and destruction of "straw-man" arguments, judicious placement of the various arguments within a message for maximum effect, listing of supporting arguments by number to make the argument look stronger, and so forth.
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From page 85... ...
A paradox arises for risk communication: How can messages be made to improve the recipients' base of information if, in order to be effective, they must use techniques of influence? The paradox disappears when one realizes that there are strategies for controlling the use of influence techniques consistent with the goal of successful risk communication.
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From page 86... ...
Responsible message designers need to interpret available advice, keeping in mind that knowledge is incomplete and that general principles may not apply to certain specific situations. Since there is no clear best way to make such judgments, substantive guidelines are not enough to ensure balance in risk messages, even when the sources are doing their best to achieve it.
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From page 87... ...
In these two procedures it is not substantive guidelines but the process of dialogue and criticism that is used to ensure a balanced message. Achieving Influence Even more difficult than the problem of achieving balance in risk communication is the problem of deciding whether balance is the wrong objective.
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From page 88... ...
We believe that more extensive public debate is needed to arrive at standards for responsible behavior by public officials in the design of risk messages. As a contribution to that debate, we offer the following observations about the conditions under which influence techniques seem most likely to be considered appropriate by various audiences.
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From page 89... ...
Observers differ on the appropriateness of such techniques for a particular purpose, even when all agree that the purpose justifies some form of governmental influence. We conclude that public values about the importance of particular public purposes and the acceptability of particular influence techniques are not well understood.
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From page 90... ...
Governmental attempts to influence citizens' beliefs and actions can be justified only to the extent that some legitimate public process has culminated in a decision that using risk messages to influence behavior serves an important public purpose. Influence and Personal Action The clearest example of politically established legitimacy for risk messages occurred in the congressional debate on persuading people to stop smoking.
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From page 91... ...
The judgment of whether public officials have or have not exceeded their proper role in a particular attempt to influence public debate is difficult to make. But it is a matter of judgment.
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From page 92... ...
A public official should be aware of the political risks and of the legitimate constraints placed upon government in advocacy and, where an unusually strong degree of advocacy seems warranted, seek political approval of such action. Risk communication may be difficult because the purposes of messages are not clear or because they have multiple, perhaps conflicting, purposes.
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From page 93... ...
2. For instance, public support for persuasive messages about AIDS prevention was minimal when the disease seemed to threaten only homosexual males, Haitians, and intravenous drug users but increased rapidly when children, hemophiliacs, adult heterosexuals, and hospital patients receiving blood transfusions were seen to be at risk.
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