[Psychosocial aspects of perception of technology-related risk]

In addition to the somatic effects, physical and chemical factors may also have sociopsychological impacts and distort perception of technogenic risks. Risk management is an important component in the analysis of human-environment interaction. Individuum per se with her/his system of values plays a key role in risk perception and transformation of this perception. Reviewed are the sociopsychological constituents of risk perception that often give birth to phobias, as well as national-ethnic peculiarities and the role of mass media in provoking phobias. Emphasized is the necessity to continue studies of phobias evoked by technogenic risks in the next areas: somatic and mental health and risk perception, genetic mechanisms of resistance to physical and toxic factors, ethnic and national factors in risk perception, sociopsychological aspects of interaction of novel technologies, society, public health and ecological movements; ideology, religion, mysticism, mass-media: formation of distorted perception of risk; risk management.