Abstract
The concept of risk is used in the study of social life, and, in particular, social problems. While in its broadest sense risk is the probability of some future event happening, usually the notion of risk implies the chance that some future danger such as injury, damage, or loss will occur (Gifford, 1986). For the social scientist, risk perception is a central concept in the study of illness behavior, the practice of health promotion, and in the study of citizen’s responses to disaster warnings. There are several reasons why attention is given to the notion of risk perception in traditional social science research. First, the concept of perceived risk is a component in many of the standard theories of human behavior. Second, successful prevention program interventions focus on changing risk perceptions, because threat has been shown in empirical studies to be related to motivation and behavioral change. And third, the predictive power of behavior change models is likely to be improved by identifying cognitive strategies that people use to assess their risk (Prohaska, 1990; Slovic, 1987).