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Seeking and Processing Information about Impersonal Risk

LeeAnn Kahlor

University of Texas, Austin, kahlor{at}mail.utexas.edu

Sharon Dunwoody

University of Wisconsin-Madison

Robert J. Griffin

Marquette University, Milwaukee, Wisconsin

Kurt Neuwirth

University of Cincinnati, Cincinnati, Ohio

Attempts to model risk response tend to focus on risks that pose a direct personal threat. This study examined the applicability of one risk response model to impersonal risks—risks that threaten something other than the self, in this case, the environment. This study utilized a section of the Griffin et al. risk-information seeking and processing model, which depicts relationships between informational subjective norms and information seeking and processing as being mediated by perceptions of information insufficiency. The results indicate that while those relationships do hold for impersonal risk, informational subjective norms (perceived social pressure to be informed) may play an even more complex role than initially anticipated. These norms may be a powerful predictor of seeking and processing when individuals face impersonal risks.

Key Words: environmental risk • social norms • information sufficiency • risk communication • information seeking • information processing

Science Communication, Vol. 28, No. 2, 163-194 (2006)
DOI: 10.1177/1075547006293916
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This article has been cited by other articles:


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L. Kahlor and S. Rosenthal
If We Seek, Do We Learn?: Predicting Knowledge of Global Warming
Science Communication, March 1, 2009; 30(3): 380 - 414.
[Abstract] [PDF]

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R. J. Griffin, Zheng Yang, E. ter Huurne, F. Boerner, S. Ortiz, and S. Dunwoody
After the Flood: Anger, Attribution, and the Seeking of Information
Science Communication, March 1, 2008; 29(3): 285 - 315.
[Abstract] [PDF]