Satterfield Terre A, Mertz C K, Slovic Paul
Institute for Resources, the Environment, and Sustainability, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, BC, Canada.
Risk Anal. 2004 Feb;24(1):115-29. doi: 10.1111/j.0272-4332.2004.00416.x.
Recent research finds that perceived risk is closely associated with race and gender. In surveys of the American public a subset of white males stand out for their uniformly low perceptions of environmental health risks, while most nonwhite and nonmale respondents reveal higher perceived risk. Such findings have been attributed to the advantageous position of white males in American social life. This article explores the linked possibility that this demographic pattern is driven not simply by the social advantages or disadvantages embodied in race or gender, but by the subjective experience of vulnerability and by sociopolitical evaluations pertaining to environmental injustice. Indices of environmental injustice and social vulnerability were developed as part of a U.S. National Risk Survey (n= 1,192) in order to examine their effect on perceived risk. It was found that those who regarded themselves as vulnerable and supported belief statements consistent with the environmental justice thesis offered higher risk ratings across a range of hazards. Multivariate analysis indicates that our measures of vulnerability and environmental injustice predict perceived risk but do not account for all of the effects of race and gender. The article closes with a discussion of the implications of these findings for further work on vulnerability and risk, risk communication, and risk management practices generally.
最近的研究发现，感知风险与种族和性别密切相关。在美国公众调查中，一部分白人男性因其对环境健康风险的普遍低感知而突出，而大多数非白人及非男性受访者则显示出更高的感知风险。这些发现归因于白人男性在美国社会生活中的优势地位。本文探讨了一种相关可能性，即这种人口模式不仅由种族或性别所体现的社会优势或劣势驱动，还由脆弱性的主观体验以及与环境不公正相关的社会政治评价驱动。作为美国国家风险调查（n = 1,192）的一部分，开发了环境不公正和社会脆弱性指标，以检验它们对感知风险的影响。研究发现，那些认为自己脆弱并支持与环境正义论点一致的信念陈述的人，在一系列危害中给出了更高的风险评级。多变量分析表明，我们的脆弱性和环境不公正指标可以预测感知风险，但不能解释种族和性别的所有影响。文章最后讨论了这些发现对进一步研究脆弱性与风险、风险沟通以及一般风险管理实践的意义。
