Project

The Impact of Social Amplification on Risk Communication

Research Team

Prof Glynis Breakwell, Dr Julie Barnett

Client

The Health and Safety Executive
Website

Dates

September 1998 – October 2000

Notes

Risk management has become a dominant concern of public policy and yet the ability of government to anticipate the strength and focus of public concerns remains weak. This has proven to be costly. Rectifying the misunderstandings and assuaging the deep anxieties that surround "scares" and accidents can, and does, cost governments billions of pounds. It is thus vital to understand the genesis and development of such risk impacts.

The Social Amplification of Risk Framework (SARF) was designed to assist in this endeavour. The current research was designed to test the applicability of SARF to the UK context and to develop its application to risk communication. Specifically the aim was to derive ‘testable hypotheses about the factors which both predispose and trigger or causally affect the amplification of risk’. This was addressed using secondary data sources in four case studies: the pill scare, AIDS, BSE and the siting of an LNG station.

Publications

Breakwell, G.M and Barnett, J. (2001) The Impact of Social Amplification on Risk Communication, Contract Research Report 322/2001, Health and Safety Executive London: Sudbury

J.Barnett and G. Breakwell (2003) The Social Amplification of Risk and the Hazard Sequence: The October 1995 OC Pill Scare, Health, Risk and Society, 5, 3, 301-313

G Breakwell and J Barnett (2003) Social Amplification of risk and the Layering Method. N.Pidgeon, R.Kasperson, P.Slovic, The Social Amplification of Risk Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, p 80 – 101

Report

Project

Understanding Special Interest Groups

Research Team

Dr J Barnett, Dr B Doherty, C Rootes, Prof G Breakwell, K Gray

Client

The Environment Agency
Website

Dates

October 2002 – June 2004

Aims

The aim of this research is to enable Environment Agency (EA) staff to recognise and understand some of the main types of Special Interest Group (SIG) and to develop clear criteria for responding to such groups.

An extensive literature review in conjunction with the collection of relevant data will assist in addressing four research questions

1. How can SIGs most usefully be classified for Environment Agency purposes?
2. How can the relationships and interactions between SIGs and the Agency best be characterized?
3. What factors currently drive decisions at a local level about how to respond to SIGs?
4. Which patterns of interaction and communication are likely to be most fruitful/effective in relation to SIGs?

The participation of Environment Agency staff in a series of workshops is crucial to addressing these questions in a relevant and useful way. A series of interviews have been conducted with both Agency staff and representatives of SIGs and case studies are currently affording a closer look at the relationships between the Agency and SIGs.

Project

Attitudes to Genomics
Website

Research Team

Prof R Shepherd, Dr J Barnett, Dr A Coyle, Dr C Fife-Schaw, J Moran-Ellis, Dr V Senior, Dr P Sturgis, Dr H Cooper, C Walton

Client

ESRC
Website

Dates

November 2002 – January 2005

Aims

The completion of genome sequencing projects both for humans and for other species has launched biological sciences into a new 'post-genomic' era. Work is advancing rapidly on understanding the function of individual genes and there are major potential benefits from a range of technologies associated with genomics.

However, against this background there are also potential problems. Genetically modified foods have met with public opposition in the UK and Europe and planting of GM crops has provoked direct action from environmental groups. The prospects of human cloning and the uses of genetic information and patenting of genes are major issues of concern to the general public.

Using qualitative, large scale quantitative and experimental methods, this ESRC-funded project assesses UK public attitudes towards a range of applications of genomics including GM foods, cloning and genetic testing.

Project

Using Lay Environmental Knowledge in Industry
Website

Research Team

Dr K Burningham, Dr J Barnett, Prof R Clift, Dr W Wehrmeyer, Dr A Carr

Client

ESRC
Website

Dates

February 2003 – January 2005;

Aims

The sustainable development agenda with its overt aim of incorporating social, economic and environmental aspects into decisions affecting people and communities has emphasised the need to include lay knowledge in environmental decision making. Approaches and processes for interpreting lay knowledge and including it in structured decision processes, however, remain matters of uncertainty and active debate. This is particularly the case in private sector organisations, which are the focus of this research. While the practice of public consultation and market research is now commonplace within industry, to date there have been no systematic evaluations of how lay environmental knowledge is actually understood by industry. Our research will explore how companies in the domestic cleaning products sector conceive of ‘the public’ and ‘lay environmental knowledge’, and how this informs the ways in which the public access and use such knowledge.

The overall AIM of the research is to contribute to existing academic, corporate and public knowledge by providing a clear account of how lay environmental knowledge and concern is conceptualised, accessed and used by industry. These issues will be explored first in qualitative research based on four case-study companies, then by testing hypotheses developed from these cases in a survey of the domestic cleaning products industry.

Project

Factors Influencing the Efficacy of Food Risk and Dietary Communications Directed at Young People

Research Team

Dr K Trew, Dr J Barnett, Prof G Breakwell, Dr O Muldoon, Dr M Barry, Dr G McCartney, C Clark

Client

Safefood, (Food Safety Promotion Board)
Website

Dates

May 2003 – August 2005

Aims

This research will examine the factors that influence the efficacy of food risk and dietary communications directed at young people in adolescence (13-16 years).

The project will study 3000-4000 young people in the 13-16 age range, sampled randomly from schools drawn from geographical locations that ensure an adequate spread across all of Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland, reflecting urban and rural economic divisions. We will employ both qualitative and quantitative methods. These will explore adolescent beliefs about food risks and nutritional information, barriers to the acceptance of expert communications and preferences for information sources. Adolescent appreciations of genetically modified foods will be a particular focus.

Other work relating to food risk at the University of Surrey is being carried out within the Food, Consumer Behaviour and Health Research Centre.

Final Report

http://www.safefoodonline.com/uploads/Young_People_FINAL.pdf

and

Research Summary

http://www.safefoodonline.com/Uploads/Young People Draft 3.pdf

Project

Communicating Uncertainty: Mobile Telecommunication Health Risks
Website

Research Team

Dr J Barnett, Dr V Senior, Prof R Shepherd, J Vincent

Client

Link Mobile Telecommunications Health Research Programme
Website

Dates

February 2004 – January 2006

Aims

This project brings together a team with extensive expertise in social psychology and risk communication and will provide the evidence base for future policy development concerning the communication of uncertain risks associated with mobile telecommunications. This will be achieved through a sequence of carefully constructed interrelated studies comprising focus groups, a survey component and experimental studies. In addition extensive pilot work will seek to develop reliable self reporting measures of behaviour relating to phone use and base stations. Throughout participants will be members of the general public who use handsets, or are affected by base stations. The focus groups (n=80) will directly inform the development of the survey and experimental work. The ONS Omnibus Survey will use a stratified random probability sample (n>1600) to establish the efficacy of current risk communications in this area and establish reliable base line information against which the efficacy of future communications can be assessed. Experimental work (n > 300) will systematically address responses to different types of uncertainty and the effect that such information has upon risk appreciation, intentions and behaviour. The role of specific absorption rate (SAR) in phone choice will also be explored in this phase of the research.

Press Release - 47Kb

Project

Research Team

Client

Dates

February 2004 – July 2004

Project

Research Team

Client

Dates

December 2005 – November 2008

• a literature review of theory and practice in public engagement, NIMBYism and public perceptions of renewable energy technologies;
• a qualitative study of representations of the public in relation to renewable technologies, investigating how such representations may have shaped technological design pathways, involving interviews with a range of stakeholders;
• ongoing liaison with research stakeholders involving the holding of practitioner workshops with non-academic stakeholders, meetings of an advisory panel and contact with the UK Energy Research Centre
• the production of an integrated framework for understanding public engagement and perceptions that encompasses technical and social science;
• testing this framework in a series of multi-method case studies, involving different renewable energy technologies;
• to refine the framework and disseminate to research users.

Project

TECHNEAU: Technology Enabled Access to Safe Water
Website

Research Team

Client

Dates

January 2006

Project

Research Team

Client

Dates

February 2006

Project

Research Team

1 Medical Physics Department, Royal Surrey County Hospital, Guildford, Surrey, GU2 7XX
2 Department of Psychology, University of Surrey, Guildford, Surrey, GU2 7XH

Client

Dates

Notes

The aim of this research was to investigate information on restricting the exposure to radiation from nuclear medicine patients following diagnostic and therapeutic procedures. It comprised an audit of current practice in UK departments and interviews and focus groups exploring the views and experiences of patients and professionals. The majority of departments provide verbal and/or written information on restricting contact with others, particularly pregnant women and children. Fewer departments give instructions about minimising contamination. On the whole, information provided complies with or, in the case if diagnostic procedures, goes beyond the restrictions specified in the Medical and Dental Guidance Notes. Information is rarely produced in formats for people with disabilities or people who do not have English as a first language. We identified a need to communicate more effectively with patients the rationale for restrictions and the consequences of non-adherence. We also identified a need to raise awareness of radiation protection issues and disseminate information more effectively with professionals outside of nuclear medicine departments. Ways in which both of these needs can be addressed are discussed.

Publications

Report

Project

Research Team

Dr Chris Quine, Professor Sarah Randolph, Professor David Uzzell, Dr Julie Barnett

Client

Dates

Notes

This project will result in understanding how both individuals and organisations perceive and respond to the risks of Lyme Disease, and new computer models that predict the location of ticks that bear the disease (possibly leading to the development of an early warning system of dangerous periods and locations). The research will bring these findings together in developing a clearer understanding of the alternative futures that could occur both with and without enhanced preventative action.

Surprisingly little is known about how best to warn users of the countryside about the potential for disease without scaring them away, and about how best to encourage preventative action without spoiling enjoyment. How should owners and land managers tackle such a problem? How do members of the public react to different types/levels of information? How would users of the countryside (whether they are going there for recreation or whether they work on the land) prefer to receive such information? Do we know enough to prepare appropriate information and what should that be? These questions are at the heart of the current project.

We plan to provide answers to these, and other related questions, by combining a diverse set of scientific skills to produce integrated solutions. These skills include those of biologists who investigate tick populations, ecologists who consider how land provides habitats and can be managed, environmental psychologists who seek to understand how people behave in different environments and social psychologists who look at the best ways of understanding people's views and the most effective ways of providing information to them.

Publications

Project

Web-based engagement:  a feasibility study

Research Team

Dr Julie Barnett, Professor Richard Shepherd, Professor Chris Fife-Schaw, Dr Lada Timotijevic, Jon Fletcher (Brook Lyndhurst) Dave Fletcher (White October)

Client

Dates

November 2007 - April 2008

Notes

Publications

Project

Making Consultation Meaningful

Research Team

Dr Julie Barnett

Client

Dates

September 2006 – September 2007

Notes

Following the award of an ESRC placement research fellowship, from September 06-07  I worked within Defra.  My brief was to assist with developing their evidence based policy making.  In thinking about how best to do this I took my lead from Defra’s recently published Evidence and Innovation Strategy which committed to developing guidance on how best to involve stakeholders and engage publics in identification and prioritisation of evidence needs.

Although in academia there has been a strong emphasis on more participative models of engagement and how these can best inform the framing of policy directions and the decisions that are made, the reality is that within everyday policy making it is the formal written consultation that remains the routine and visible way in which policy officials engage with stakeholders – and publics.   This situation is unlikely to change in the foreseeable future apart from intermittently in high profile policy domains.  Thus whilst drawing on current academic insights in this area, my main focus was on exploring the incremental changes in engaging with stakeholders – and publics – that would be possible within everyday constraints of the process of policy development.  Analysis of interviews with policy officials and an analysis of Defra consultation documents led to identification of key areas of learning from current practice. 

Publications