Environmental Risk Exposure, Risk Perception, Political Ideology and Support for Climate Policy

The degree to which risk perceptions are socially constructed versus the result of actual exposure to risk is highly contested; how risk exposure and risk perception influence policy attitudes is also poorly understood. We examine how personal exposure to risk factors impacts risk perceptions and po...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Published in:Sociological focus (Kent, Ohio) Ohio), 2017-10, Vol.50 (4), p.309-328
Main Authors: Mayer, Adam, Shelley, Tara O'Connor, Chiricos, Ted, Gertz, Marc
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Air pollution
Climate change
Climate policy
Environmental policy
Environmental risk
Exposure
Ideology
Perception
Perceptions
Political ideologies
Risk
Risk exposure
Risk factors
Citations: Items that this one cites
Items that cite this one
Online Access:Get full text
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
Description
Summary:The degree to which risk perceptions are socially constructed versus the result of actual exposure to risk is highly contested; how risk exposure and risk perception influence policy attitudes is also poorly understood. We examine how personal exposure to risk factors impacts risk perceptions and policy support related to air pollution and climate change. Our selection of risk exposure variables is informed by the "mental models" literature, and we employ an array of variables to capture subjective risk perceptions using novel survey data. We find that exposure to risk does little to predict risk perception and has a small influence on policy support. Overall, our findings lend support to a constructionist understanding of risk perception and support for policies related to environmental risks.
ISSN:0038-0237
2162-1128
DOI:10.1080/00380237.2017.1312855