The concept of risk is an outgrowth of our society's great concern about coping with the dangers of modern life. The Perception of Risk brings together the work of Paul Slovic, one of the world's leading analysts of risk, risk perception and risk management, to examine the gap between expert views of risk and public perceptions. Ordered chronologically, it allows the reader to see the evolution of our understanding of such perceptions, from early studies identifying public misconceptions of risk to recent work that recognizes the importance and legitimacy of equity, trust, power and other value-laden issues underlying public concern.
This was a fantastic book. It is related to my field of research, so I was pretty sure I would find it relevant and interesting, But it was more than just that. The authors of the various articles are almost uniformly excellent writers that engage the reqder and do not resort to loads of equations and mathiness. Instead, the succeeding chapters explore the very human processes of making decisions about risks. I highly recommend this very, very readable book.