Freudenstein F, Boerner F, Croft R J, Leung R W S, Loughran S P, Wiedemann P M
Australian Centre for Electromagnetic Bioeffects Research, Illawarra Health and Medical Research Institute, University of Wollongong, Wollongong, NSW, Australia; Department of Epidemiology and Preventive Medicine, School of Public Health and Preventive Medicine, Faculty of Medicine Nursing and Health Sciences, Monash University, Melbourne, VIC, Australia; Centre for Population Health Research on Electromagnetic Energy, Monash University, VIC, Australia; Faculty of Social Work, Health and Nursing, Ravensburg-Weingarten University of Applied Sciences, Weingarten, Germany.
Institute of Occupational Medicine, Charité Universitätsmedizin Berlin, Berlin, Germany.
Environ Res. 2023 Apr 15;223:115422. doi: 10.1016/j.envres.2023.115422. Epub 2023 Feb 3.
The study addresses the effects of generalization descriptions on risk perceptions. In a 1-factorial online experiment, 629 participants were randomly allocated to one of three groups. Group G1 received an excerpt of an original press release from the International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC) regarding mobile phones and cancer, classifying RF EMF as possibly carcinogenic to humans. Group G2 received an additional explanatory text module, and Group G3 received a rewritten text, with both G2 and G3 highlighting that the possible cancer risk only refers to mobile phones. Risk perceptions regarding cell phones and related personal devices, base stations, and high voltage power lines were used as dependent variables measured before and after text reading. Further, the degree to which participants generalized from cell phone-related to other RF EMF exposures was assessed to determine whether this was predictive of their post-text risk perceptions. Regarding risk perceptions, no differences between the three groups were observed after reading the presented texts. Instead, all three experimental groups indicated increased risk perceptions for all electromagnetic field sources. However, we found significant differences according to the prevailing risk generalization belief. Respondents expressing a strong risk generalization belief showed significantly higher risk perceptions for all tested EMF sources (except mobile phones) than subjects with a weak risk generalization belief.
该研究探讨了概括性描述对风险认知的影响。在一项单因素在线实验中，629名参与者被随机分配到三个组中的一组。G1组收到了国际癌症研究机构（IARC）关于手机与癌症的一份原始新闻稿摘录，将射频电磁场归类为可能对人类致癌。G2组收到了一个额外的解释性文本模块，G3组收到了一篇改写后的文本，G2组和G3组都强调了可能的癌症风险仅指手机。将关于手机及相关个人设备、基站和高压电线的风险认知作为文本阅读前后测量的因变量。此外，评估了参与者从与手机相关的暴露情况推广到其他射频电磁场暴露情况的程度，以确定这是否能预测他们阅读文本后的风险认知。关于风险认知，阅读所呈现的文本后，三组之间未观察到差异。相反，所有三个实验组都表示对所有电磁场源的风险认知有所增加。然而，根据普遍的风险推广信念，我们发现了显著差异。表达强烈风险推广信念的受访者对所有测试的电磁场源（手机除外）的风险认知显著高于风险推广信念较弱的受试者。
