Tolerance for Potential Environmental Health Risks: The Influence of Knowledge,Benefits, Control,Involvement, and Uncertainty

As organizations, especially companies, regulators, and environmentalists, attempt to communicate with key publics about risk conditions in the workplace and neighborhoods, serious research attention is being given to understanding risk communication, especially as mandated in the Superfund Amendment Reauthorization Act of 1986 (SARA). Title 111, Section 313 of that act requires chemical companies to inform key publics about their chemical emissions. In this vein, we compare respondents who are more tolerant of environmental risk with those who are less tolerant based on each group's level of knowledge, perception of benefits, level of involvement, perceived control, and level of uncertainty concerning a potential risk source. Analysis showed a significant difference between less risk-tolerant and more risk-tolerant subjects concerning perception of benefits and level of involvement. As predicted from previous research, no significant difference was found between the two groups based on their knowledge about the issue. No significant differences were found between the two groups for perceived control and level of uncertainty, although differences were found to follow predictions. These findings were analyzed in detail, with special attention to implications both for public relations practitioners who are interested in the content of risk messages and for defining targeted audiences based on those audiences' desire for information.