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Using the Threat Probability Task to Assess Anxiety and Fear During Uncertain and Certain Threat

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Examining the relationship between affect and implicit associations: implications for risk perception.

Simone Dohle¹, Carmen Keller, Michael Siegrist

¹Institute for Environmental Decisions, Consumer Behavior, ETH Zurich, Switzerland. sdohle@ethz.ch

Risk Analysis : an Official Publication of the Society for Risk Analysis

|April 23, 2010

Summary

People use emotional responses, or affect, to quickly assess risks. This study used implicit association tests to show that negative affect is linked to high-dread risks like nuclear power, while positive affect is linked to low-dread risks.

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Area of Science:

Psychology
Risk Perception
Decision Science

Background:

Affective responses significantly influence risk perception.
The affect heuristic suggests reliance on spontaneous emotions over detailed analysis for risk assessment.
Understanding implicit affect is crucial for a comprehensive view of risk perception.

Purpose of the Study:

To validate the Single Category Implicit Association Test (SC-IAT) as a measure of affect in risk perception.
To investigate the relationship between the 'dread' dimension of hazards and the affect they evoke.
To explore the utility of implicit measures in understanding risk attitudes.

Main Methods:

Employed the Single Category Implicit Association Test (SC-IAT) to measure implicit associations with various hazards.
Correlated SC-IAT results with explicit measures of affect, trust, and subjective knowledge.
Compared affect evoked by high-dread (nuclear power), medium-dread (hydroelectric power), and non-dread (home appliances) hazards.

Main Results:

The SC-IAT demonstrated construct validity, correlating with explicit affect and trust measures, but not subjective knowledge.
High-dread hazards (nuclear power) elicited significantly more negative associations than medium-dread hazards (hydroelectric power).
Non-dread hazards (home appliances) evoked positive associations, contrasting with high-dread risks.

Conclusions:

Affect plays a critical role in shaping public attitudes and opinions toward different types of risks.
Implicit measures, such as the SC-IAT, offer valuable insights into risk perception beyond traditional explicit measures.
The 'dread' factor in risk perception is strongly associated with underlying negative affective responses.