Risk perception and interpersonal discussion on risk: A systematic literature review

Risk perception research has long been attentive to the fact that risk is a social construction. Nevertheless, this fact has not been integrated into empirical research in any systematic manner. Empirical studies that do focus on the social construction of risk often do so from very different positions and with different objectives in mind. Interpersonal discussion, while considered an important medium of social construction, is rarely given consideration. This systematic literature review aims to provide a coherent foundation for empirical studies of interpersonal discussion on risk. Specifically, it summarizes existing research into the reciprocal relationship between interpersonal discussion on risk and individual-level risk perception. The systematic literature review adheres to the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews (PRISMA) guidelines. A total of 843 unique articles were identified, of which 60 are included in the review. A majority of the articles in the corpus found a positive association between interpersonal discussion on risk and risk perception. This association, however, lacks robustness, especially in terms of the direction of causality. Three theoretical interpretations of the relationship are found in the corpus: (1) interpersonal discussion as a conduit for risk information, (2) risk perception as shared social schemata, and (3) interpersonal discussion on risk as a facilitator of similarity between network members. Implications for future research are discussed. This literature review concludes with six guiding principles for future research into the interpersonal discussion-risk perception relationship.