is with Decision Research, University of Oregon.

"For the past 25 years, Paul Slovic and his colleagues have examined how individuals perceive the risks of living in the modern world. Each chapter of "The Perception of Risk" is a small sample of their research and a comprehensive introduction to risk perception, from early studies identifying gaps between public and expert perceptions to current work that considers the effects of social, political, and cultural factors...A common bibliography and index increase the usefulness of this collection. For anyone wishing to gain an understanding of what drives public perception of risk, this book is essential reading." -- Environment

"[This] is an illuminating and important book... [that] covers a great deal of ground... In some of [the] most striking chapters Slovic claims that ordinary people display a rival rationality that is worthy of consideration and respect. Insisting that "risk" is not simply a matter of numbers, Slovic argues that a good system of risk regulation should be democratic as well as technocratic -- and that it should pay a great deal of attention to what he sees as the structured and sometimes subtle thinking of ordinary people. (Slovic's) work carries considerable importance for those concerned with law and policy, partly because an understanding of human cognition (not excluding emotion) helps to explain people's reactions to risk and their demands for legal responses. Such an understanding will help us to see which approaches to risk regulation will work and which will not. It will also illuminate the continuing battle between technocratic and populist approaches to risk. If we know why people think what they do, and whether their views are based on mistakes or ...reasonable judgments..., we will be able to make some progress in understanding the role of science, and experts, in the world of risk regulation." -- Cass R Sunstein, Karl N Llewellyn Distinguished Service Professor of Law at the University of Chicago, in the Harvard Law Review.

"...contemporary society is enlarging the number and complexity of activities that can degrade the quality of human life and its natural environment at the same time...Thus, measures to assess and manage risks are increasing, and the results are visible in proliferating standards and requirements. The papers in this volume address a wide range of risk perception issues, including decision processes, rationality, and natural hazards; acceptable levels of risk; risk assessment; public information about risk..technological and nuclear risks and public perceptions; and insensitivity to the value of human life." -- Natural Hazards Observer


"This comprehensive guide -- perhaps the first of its kind-- is for anyone with an interest in the public perception of risk, including policy maker, business, and academics in various fields including economics, public health and the environment." Journal for Sustainable Waste Management.

"Slovic writes with rare grace and verve, along with frequent flashes of humour..his prose is as perfect as a proverb." -- The Journal of Psychology and Financial Markets

"For new researchers to the area this is an excellent book for tracing the development of work in risk perception over the last 25 years and as a way of finding out about some of the contemporary approaches. It will also provide a good way of understanding how current approaches have evolved. As a catalogue of one man's work it is impressive." -- European Association for Decision Marketing

"For new researchers to the area this is an excellent book for tracing the development of work in risk perception over the last 25 years and as a way of finding out about some of the contemporary approaches. It will also provide a good way of understanding how current approaches have evolved. For more experienced researchers in this area all the papers, apart from the overview of around 17 pages will be familiar. I found it interesting to reread some of the early papers and reflect upon them in the light of recent developments. As a catalogue of one man's work it is impressive." -- Bulletin of the European Association for Decision Marketing

"It is impossible to do justice to the breadth and importance of this book in a short review...For anyone in planning or environmental management wishing to gain an understanding of what drives the public's perception of different risks, and how, as managers, they can manage risk more effectively, the papers in this book form essential reading. The papers are also highly relevant for anyone contemplating undertaking any environmental valuation of a good subject to risk or uncertainty." -- Journal of Environmental Planning and Management

"[Slovic] can lay legitmate claimto having initiated the crucially important paradigm shift from thinking in terms of why lay people are 'incapable' of 'rational' thought about risk to thinking in terms of what factors actually make risks loom as more threatening and why…many chapters in this book should be on the 'required reading' list of all advanced courses in risk perception and risk communication that try to take the contributions of the social and behvioral sciences into account, and several may belong on the bibliographies of courses in the sociology of risk, sociology of technology, and sociology of environment"--Susanna Hornig Priest in Science and Public Policy