Effective Risk Communication

Edited by Joseph Árvai and Louie Rivers III

There are two questions often asked of risk communication: what has been learned from past work, and what is needed to push the field forward? Drawing on the experience of leading risk researchers and practitioners, Effective Risk Communication focuses on answering these questions. The book draws together new examples of research and practice from contexts as diverse as energy generation, human health, nuclear waste, climate change, food choice, and social media. This book treats risk communication as much more than the interchange of risk information between experts and non-experts; rather, it aims to emphasize the diversity in viewpoints and practices.

In each specially commissioned chapter, the authors reflect on the theoretical and applied underpinnings of their best projects and comment on how their approach could be used effectively by others. Building upon each other, the chapters will provoke new discussion and action around a discipline which many feel is neither meeting important needs in practice, nor living up to its potential in research. Through a more careful examination of the work already done in risk communication, the book will help develop better, more reflective practice for the future.

Joseph Árvai is an Associate Research Scientist at Decision Research and the Dana and David Dornsife Professor of Psychology in the Department of Psychology and the Director of the Wrigley Institute for Environmental Studies at the Dornsife College of Letters, Arts, and Sciences at the University of Southern California.

Louie Rivers III is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Forestry and Environmental Resources at North Carolina State University, USA.

Available from the publisher, Routledge.

Reference: Arvai, J., & Rivers, L. (Eds.). (2014). Effective risk communication. New York: Routledge.