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Published on: September 19, 2012
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On the semantic representation of risk
Dirk U Wulff1,2, Rui Mata1,2
1University of Basel, Basel, Switzerland.
Science Advances
|July 20, 2022
Summary
Understanding risk perception is key. This study reveals universal and individual differences in how people semantically represent risk, impacting risk communication strategies.
Area of Science:
- Cognitive Psychology
- Social Psychology
- Computational Linguistics
Background:
- The semantic representation of risk influences risk perception and decision-making.
- Previous research relied on surveys and text analysis, limiting nuanced understanding.
- Exploring laypeople's understanding of risk is crucial for effective communication.
Purpose of the Study:
- To map the semantics of risk using word associations.
- To identify universal and individual differences in risk representation.
- To extend current understanding beyond traditional survey and text-based methods.
Main Methods:
- Development and application of a mini-snowball word association paradigm.
- Utilizing network analysis to map semantic structures.
- Employing sentiment analysis to quantify emotional connotations.
Main Results:
- Association-based representations corroborate and extend existing findings on risk semantics.
- Identified universal semantic clusters for risk, generalized across languages.
- Demonstrated systematic demographic variations in risk connotations and associated activities.
Conclusions:
- Risk semantics exhibit both universal properties and significant individual/group differences.
- Older and female respondents associate risk with more negative connotations and specific activities.
- The subjective meaning of 'risk' varies across individuals, impacting measurement and communication.
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