EXPERT AND GENERAL PUBLIC PERCEPTIONS OF RISKS: PERPLEX STUDY

摘要

What are the differences in risk perception between the general public and the experts? The PERPLEX study considers two issues: the first compares the general publics' and experts' perceptions of 27 risks, and the second considers the experts' perception regarding their daily activities and risk knowledge. In late October 2004, a survey was conducted on a sample of 2000 people. Although the available studies are not generally based on methodological foundations sound enough to use for drawing robust conclusions, they nevertheless provide lines of research for conducting the PERPLEX study, the only French experiment in such a wide scope in terms of individuals questioned and the number of people involved. The Perplex study has two major aims: To compare the perception of risks by members of the general public and by people from agencies working in areas of risks. To test the awareness of experts and the level of uniformity in their responses to risk, depending on how much they are affected by their line of work, within their organisation, their involvement in a scientific project, their approval of their organisation's project or the nature of the risk that their organisation has to face directly or indirectly.