The Politics of Invasive Weed Management: Gender,Race, and Risk Perception in Rural California*

Abstract “Biological invasions” are now recognized as the cause of significant ecological and economic damage. They also raise a series of less visible social issues. Management of invasive species is often a political process raising questions such as who decides which organisms are to be managed, and who benefits or is affected by different management techniques. In a rural region of northern California, the proposed use of herbicides on spotted knapweed sparked an intense social controversy. This research uses participant observation, interviews, and archival material to understand how members of the Karuk Tribe of California, the non‐Indian community, and the U.S. Forest Service developed different perceptions of safety and risk regarding herbicide use. I describe interconnected factors that frame the interpretation of risk: institutional trust, proximity to exposure, gender, and race. Gender and race, in turn, form the basis of anti‐herbicide mobilization. The larger sociological question highlighted is, who pays the price for species invasions? Use of herbicides on invasive species is increasing. Many people who face increased exposure to herbicides are members of racial minority groups. When the poor or racial minorities face disproportionate exposure, differences in risk perception become matters of environmental justice. This paper discusses the broader social implications of differences in risk perception among communities and land managers.     

Climate Hazards and Risk Status: Explaining Climate Risk Assessment,Behavior, and Policy Support

Based on a national survey conducted two years after Hurricanes Katrina and Rita hit the U.S. Gulf Coast, we investigate the ways in which major “risk conditions,” which may subject individuals to climate-related hazards, translate to varying responses to risk: including risk assessment, behavioral modification, and policy support. We present a model that an individual's risk status can be determined by their embeddedness in risk conditions, which include both exposure to risk sources and access to risk information. Our findings suggest that an individual's access to information on climate risks significantly influences their proactive responses to climate hazards, as in, those who have objective knowledge of climate risks and social ties with concerned others are more likely to be proactive toward climate risks. It is also observed that an individual's political views tend to predispose their assessment of climate risks, which further affect their behavioral and policy responses.     

Risk Perception in Gambling: A Systematic Review

Perception of the consequences of risk affects motivation and behaviour. In gambling, distorted expectations and preferences towards outcomes are associated with significant social and clinical harms. A systematic review was conducted to examine the relationship between gambling risk perception and behaviour. Sixteen studies met inclusion criteria. Studies provided evidence that disordered gamblers hold both more optimistic overall perceptions of risk, and a mixture of more positive and more negative specific outcome expectations. Preliminary evidence suggests a range of contextual and individual differences moderate risk perception affecting decision-making. Disordered gamblers appear to sustain motivation to gamble, despite more negative expectations and experiences, via cognitive processes that result in preferential emphasis on positive over negative outcomes. Given potential differences in the perception of risk between various categories of gamblers, clinicians should take into account how gamblers in treatment view gambling as a risky behaviour. Improving the accuracy of such perceptions may reduce the propensity for risk-taking behaviours.     

Risk and Recovery: Understanding Flood Risk Perceptions in a Postdisaster City—The Case of New Orleans

Flood hazards are a serious and growing threat to the health and welfare of residents in cities and rural areas around the world. This cross-sectional study uses a sample of 383 residents living in seven New Orleans, Louisiana, neighborhoods to examine the effect of experiential, sociodemographic, and socioeconomic factors on flood risk perceptions. Findings suggest that respondents judge the level of flood risk to be lower than other types of risk. Results from ordinal logistic regression analyses show that flood risk perception is influenced by flood experience, income, race, gender, homeownership status, and years residing in New Orleans. Our findings support extant scholarship showing that African Americans tend to have higher perceptions of risk than whites and that low-income people and women have higher risk perceptions than higher income residents and men. Finally, we discuss the implications of our findings for risk management planning in coastal cities like New Orleans that face omnipresent flood threats associated with climate-change-driven sea level rise and increased frequency and destructiveness of storms.     

Depending on the Sky: Environmental Distress,Migration, and Coping in Rural Cambodia

Increasingly, research seeks to understand how environmental distress motivates migration, often focusing on the importance of singular events such as flood, drought or crop loss. This article explores the case of a Cambodian community where environmental shocks have been frequent over the past decade and international migration has increased. It shows that as a result of recurring and varied environmental shocks, households increasingly perceive agriculture‐based livelihood strategies as unwise and risky. This perception is widespread even among households not directly experiencing income loss. As a result, households use migration as a replacement for local livelihood strategies. These findings support two arguments relevant for future research and policy. First, that environmental shocks have importance beyond their immediate, direct impact. Second, that recurring shocks can influence preferences for and risk perceptions of local investments. Thus for policies to effectively address environmental vulnerability and/or rural development in precarious environments, they must incorporate local understandings of risk and possibility.     

Exposure to Community Violence,Suicidality, and Psychological Distress Among African American and Latino Youths: Findings From the CDC Youth Violence Survey

The present investigation explored risk and protective factors for suicidal ideation and behavior in a sub-sample of African American and Latino adolescents (n = 2,626) who participated in the 2004 Centers for Disease Control Youth Violence Survey. Structural equation modeling was used to explore exposure to violence at the community level as a contextual factor that could potentially influence depressive symptomatology, substance abuse, parental support, social support, and suicidality among study participants. Findings indicated that exposure to violence at the community level was not directly related to suicidality among this population of urban adolescents. However, it was directly related with several other variables under study in the model, which in turn were directly related with suicidality. Tests of invariance revealed several across-group differences, particularly by race and gender, in how the identified risk and protective factors in the model related to suicidality. Implications for research and practice with urban, ethnic minority, adolescent populations are discussed.     

Gender,Race, and Perceived Environmental Risk: The “White Male” Effect in Cancer Alley,LA

Research on risk perceptions are replete with race- and gender-specific hypotheses attempting to account for attitudinal variation. However, race and gender differences may mask more notable patterns across subgroups, patterns that lie at the intersection of race and gender. Recent national studies suggest that being a White male leads to lower risk perceptions and greater willingness to accept risks. This article extends this research by examining the “White male” effect in a chronically polluted context, an area where industrial pollution is palpable and well-documented. Data are drawn from a survey of a population living in “Cancer Alley,” a stretch of the Mississippi River from Baton Rouge to New Orleans. We find that women more than men and Blacks more than Whites perceive environmental risks as serious. Further, evidence suggests that these differences are mostly due to the relatively extreme perceptions of risk accepting White males and risk adverse Black females. After controlling for select variables in hierarchical multiple regression analyses, being a White male or Black female still has a statistically significant impact on risk perceptions.     

Risk,fear, bird flu and terrorists: A study of risk perceptions and economics

This paper examines the relationship between risk perceptions, affect and the economic consequences of a bio-security threat against the U.S. food system. The main argument is that there exists a link between risk perceptions and economic behavior. The paper raises conjectures through a utility-theoretic economic model and examines these through two separate surveys, the first being a hypothetical agroterrorist attack and the second a hypothetical discovery of ‘bird flu’ in the United States. The results provide strong evidence that risk perception and fear can interact with consumption in an economically significant way.     

How migration information campaigns shape local perceptions and discourses of migration in Harar city,Ethiopia

Migration-information campaigns informing potential migrants about the risks of the journey and the harsh life conditions in the destination countries have emerged as prominent tools of migration management in the last decades. Despite their growing importance, little is known about their local implementation in countries of transit and origin as well as their influence on potential migrants' perceptions and experiences. The central objective of this paper is to understand how migration-information campaigns are implemented on a local scale and how they shape the perception and discourses of migration in the region. We pursue a multi-scalar analysis of international migration management policies and their outcomes in a specific place and link them with local migration aspirations. The paper is based on qualitative empirical research carried out in Harar, a medium-sized city in the Harari regional state of Ethiopia. Drawing on interviews with government officials, NGOs, city dwellers, and return migrants, as well as the analysis of policy documents and scientific literature, we show how the local implementation of migration-information campaigns shapes the local perceptions and discourses on migration within which migration aspirations are embedded. We found that information campaigns did not take into account the complexity and multifaceted nature of local socioeconomic and political conditions which reflects the discrepancy between policy discourses at large and people's perceptions.     

Disability and climate change: A critical realist model of climate justice

Existing literature on climate change as an issue of environmental justice documents the heightened vulnerability of people with disabilities to the effects of climate change. Additionally, there are numerous studies showing that access to information is a prerequisite for perceiving risk and taking action. Building on this work, our review seeks to understand how physical disability relates to perceptions of climate-related risk and adaptations to climate-related events. We introduce a critical realist model of climate justice to understand the relationships between the environmental features that disable, risk perception and information seeking, and adaptive capacity and resilience to climate change. In understanding the vulnerability and adaptive capacity of people with disabilities to climate change, this review synthesizes research on one of the U.S.’s largest minority communities with the goals of better understanding how vulnerable populations cope with climate change and integrating them into climate action and policy.     

Determinants of Food Safety Risks: A Multi‐disciplinary Approach*

Abstract This research employs a multi‐disciplinary approach by developing a model that draws upon psychometric, cultural, and reflexive modernization perspectives of risk perception. Using data from a 1999 national telephone survey, we tested our model on three food risks— pesticides, Salmonella, and fat. Results showed that perceptions of risks do vary by the nature of the risk investigated. Consistent with the psychometric perspective, the level of knowledge and control varied by risk, but these differences did not correspond with levels of concern. Worldview variables were correlated with perceptions of pesticides, indicating the relevance of cultural approaches. High levels of concern associated with each food risk, and the robustness of the relationship between trust and the perception of food risks, raise the possibility that trust acts as a coping mechanism, which is consistent with the reflexive modernization approach. Knowledge and trust were significantly related to all three risks.     

Assessing Risk: A Public Analysis of the Medfly Eradication Program

The Mediterranean Fruit Fly eradication program provided anopportunity to assess public attitudes toward technologicalrisks. This is a case study of 126 residents from a metropolitanarea who, during the 1981–82 Mediterranean Fruitfly Crisis,were undergoing exposure to aerial spraying with a pesticide.While only one-third of the subjects expressed fear of dangerto their health and to the environment, 94 percent undertookone or more major behavioral precautions. Individual differencesin risk perception were related to perceived benefits of theprogram, political ideology, faith in experts, and media exposure.Individual differences in risk acceptability varied primarilyas a function of risk perception. Federal, state, and businessagencies were perceived as influential in decision making, withindividual citizens having little opportunity for input.     

An Exploration of Risk Factors Associated With Dating Violence: Examining the Predictability of Adolescent Female Dating Violence Perpetration

Teen dating violence is a growing issue impacting the adolescent experience, with adolescent females at risk to perpetrate violence. This study used the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health to examine the prevalence of related dating violence risk factors and their ability to predict perpetration by adolescent females. The predictor variables identified for teen dating violence perpetration were race, exposure to violence, adolescent alcohol use, propensity to engage in risk behaviors, mental health, and delinquency. Logistic regression analyses were conducted to determine the likelihood to predict perpetration. Unlike prior regional studies, this research did not support inclusion of these risk factors for adolescent female dating violence perpetration. Practice implications are also discussed with attention to curriculum support, community needs, and research opportunities.     

Lifestyles,and Risk Perception Consumer Behavior

In this article, the concept of lifestyle is traced to its early roots in personality psychology and in marketing. In the latter field, many commercial marketing firms have made strong claims as to the explanatory power of lifestyle dimensions, often based on procedures which have been kept secret, but researchers have seldom been able to verify such claims. In spite of this, the approach is very popular, has wide credibility and is often given very favorable media coverage. Probably because of this, it is often considered as a very important and promising approach by administrators working with the regulation of risk and risk communication. It may also be credible in some quarters because it affords a way of ‘explaining’ risk perception as being non-rational. In this paper, we give results from an empirical study of nuclear waste risk perception which is related to a basic risk perception model and three approaches to lifestyles: Kahle's List of Values, a Swedish adaptation of the ‘Agoramétrie’ approach suggested by a group of French researchers, and Dake and Wildavsky's Cultural Theory dimensions. It was found that nuclear waste risk perception could be modeled successfully with risk attitudes and perception data (basic model about 65% of the variance explained), but that lifestyle dimensions added virtually nothing to the explanatory power of the model. Lifestyle dimensions in isolation only explained a minor part of the variance.     

"MEN I MESS WITH DON'T HAVE ANYTHING TO DO WITH AIDS":

Pivotal in HIV/STD intervention and prevention is how individuals perceive risk. This article discusses how ethnotheory can be used to understand the underpinnings of risk perception from the subject's perspective. Ethnotheory's theoretical and methodological character extends present models used to explain sex-related HIV behaviors and provides insights into risk perception useful for the development of effective intervention strategies. Four detailed ethnographic excerpts from low-income African American and Mexican American men and women illustrate how people form perceptions of risk and how information gained through ethnotheory is useful in the design of culturally relevant interventions.     

Hot times,hot places. Youths’ risk perceptions and risk management in Chicago and Rotterdam

Many young people in low-income neighbourhoods are considered to be at risk of poor social outcomes and of becoming victims of violence and crime. This exploratory study focuses on how young people perceive risk and navigate their environment in two low-income, multi-ethnic neighbourhoods, one in Rotterdam and one in Chicago. We conducted in-depth interviews and mental mapping exercises with young people aged 14–19 in both sites. We found that neighbourhoods matter because they expose young people to certain kinds of risks, but also that their responses were shaped by their perceptions and interpretations of these risks. Moreover, we illustrate the dynamic and interactive nature of these processes of risk perception and management by discussing the ways in which different groups occupy and use, or travel through, public space at different times of the day. We argue that risk in disadvantaged neighbourhoods is not a static dimension in young people’s lives but rather emerges from an ongoing and complex interaction between perception, interpretation and response that can be seen as a kind of boundary work.     

Social Capital,Knowledge, and the Environment: The Effect of Interpersonal Communication on Climate Change Knowledge and Policy Preferences

Abstract

This article contributes to the literature on social capital and the environment in two ways. First, we identify a relationship between interpersonal discussion networks and assessed and perceived individual scientific knowledge. We then examine if knowledge mediates the relationship between discussion networks and policy preferences about climate change (CC). Using nationally representative survey data, we examine the extent to which an individual’s interpersonal discussion network is related to knowledge on CC and support for CC policy. We find those who discuss climate have higher levels of perceived knowledge, but discussion is not related to individuals’ levels of assessed knowledge. We also find that knowledge does not fully mediate the relationship between discussion and policy preferences, implying that interpersonal discussion may influence CC policy preferences independent of perceived and assessed knowledge. We conclude with remarks about the importance of knowledge perception as well as offer some avenues to extend this research.     

Gender,Marital Status and Social Support

Abstract

While many studies have examined the separate effects of gender and marital status on patterns of perceived social support, none have examined the simultaneous effects of these two variables while controlling for other relevant variables in a large, random sample. This paper responds to this lacuna by investigating the relationships among these variables for six specific types of problems that may elicit social support from others. Using data drawn from a representative sample of the United States population, results indicate that the perception of sources of social support is primarily shaped by differences in marital status as opposed to gender. However, gender is influential in some situations. While it is not significantly related to the perception of emotional support, gender is significantly related to the perception of instrumental support. (Women manifest a tendency to consider both spouse / partner and relatives as sources of instrumental support more than men, while men rely on friends as sources of instrumental support.) The suggestion that gender may find expression within categories of marital status is supported by findings indicating that, within each of the marital status categories, when men turn to relatives and / or friends for help they tend to be male and when women turn to relatives and / or friends for help they tend to be female. Suggestions for future research are offered.     

Hygiene and Biosecurity: The Language and Politics of Risk in an Era of Emerging Infectious Diseases

Infectious diseases, such as methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus and avian influenza, have recently been high on the agenda of policy makers and the public. Although hygiene and biosecurity are preferred options for disease management, policy makers have become increasingly aware of the critical role that communication assumes in protecting people during outbreaks and epidemics. This article makes the case for a language-based approach to understanding the public perception of disease. Health language research carried out by the authors, based on metaphor analysis and corpus linguistics, has shown that concepts of journeys, pathways, thresholds, boundaries and barriers have emerged as principal framing devices used by stakeholders to advocate a hygiene based risk and disease management. These framings provide a common ground for debate, but lead to quite different perceptions and practices. This in turn might be a barrier to global disease management in a modern world.     

Risk perception of food safety issue on social media

This study aims to investigate individuals’ risk perceptions of food safety by extending the heuristic and systematic information processing model (HSM) to the social media context. Specifically, we examine the predictors of risk perceptions of food safety, including social media attention, social media credibility, as well as systematic and heuristic processing. A convenient sample of 640 adults was collected in China. Structural equation modeling was used to test the effects of social media attention and social media credibility on public risk perceptions of food safety, with information processing as mediating factors. The findings indicated that social media attention and social media credibility motivate systematic processing, which in turn promote risk perception of food safety. However, the mediating effect of heuristic processing was not found. Implications for theory and practice were discussed.