RiskRisk compensation postulates that everyone has a "risk thermostat" and that safety measures that do not affect the setting of the thermostat will be circumvented by behaviour that re-establishes the level of risk with which people were originally comfortable. It explains why, for example, motorists drive faster after a bend in the road is straightened. Cultural theory explains risk-taking behaviour by the operation of cultural filters. It postulates that behaviour is governed by the probable costs and benefits of alternative courses of action which are perceived through filters formed from all the previous incidents and associations in the risk-taker's life.; "Risk" should be of interest to many readers throughout the social sciences and in the world of industry, business, engineering, finance and public administration, since it deals with a fundamental part of human behaviour that has enormous financial and economic implications. |
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Risk: The Policy Implications of Risk Compensation and Plural Rationaities John Adams No preview available - 1995 |
Common terms and phrases
accident statistics argued Balancing behaviour Beck believe benefits bicycle helmets Britain British Medical Association campaign casualties cause cent chaos theorists Chapter claims climate CO₂ cost-benefit analysis costs countries crash cultural filters cultural theory cyclists damage debate decisions decrease Department of Transport driving economic economists egalitarian engineers environment environmental estimates evidence example fatalists Fellowship of Engineering Figure global warming greenhouse effect hierarchist human hypothesis increase individualist injuries level of risk lives London loss million motorists myths of nature numbers objective pedestrians Perceived danger perception pollution potential precautionary principle predicted probability problem propensity to take recorded reduce response result rewards risk compensation risk management risk thermostat risk-taking road safety Royal Society safety measures scientific scientists seat belt law seat belt legislation Smeed's Law speed suggests take risks threat tion traffic trend typology uncertainty Vogon Wildavsky