The research of this dissertation answers the question: Which social conditions drive interpersonal communication about risk among laypeople? Risk talk—that is, interpersonal discussion on risk—is the smallest unit through which risk information is socially processed and thus deserves the attention of risk perception scholars. Nevertheless, risk talk has traditionally been treated as simple, often neglected, concept—usually as part of an ecology of information-seeking media avenues alongside mass media, social media, and expert conversations, and often operationalized as a binary variable—and is seldom studied on its own terms.
This dissertation studies risk talk as a complex social process that is impacted both by content and context. In addition to undertaking a systematic literature review on the relationship between risk talk and risk perception, I studied people’s preferences for the content and context of risk conversations, the role of social...
Show moreThe research of this dissertation answers the question: Which social conditions drive interpersonal communication about risk among laypeople? Risk talk—that is, interpersonal discussion on risk—is the smallest unit through which risk information is socially processed and thus deserves the attention of risk perception scholars. Nevertheless, risk talk has traditionally been treated as simple, often neglected, concept—usually as part of an ecology of information-seeking media avenues alongside mass media, social media, and expert conversations, and often operationalized as a binary variable—and is seldom studied on its own terms.
This dissertation studies risk talk as a complex social process that is impacted both by content and context. In addition to undertaking a systematic literature review on the relationship between risk talk and risk perception, I studied people’s preferences for the content and context of risk conversations, the role of social normalization of a given risk activity, and how people narrate their own motivations for, and perceived outcomes of, risk conversations. Together, this dissertation paints a picture of risk talk as a complex tapestry of social processes that is shaped to a substantial degree by the risk it concerns.
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