[ RadSafe ] Scientists' Beliefs about Radiation Risks and Social Norms

[Peter Bossew]

An interesting article:


Carol L. Silva, Hank C. Jenkins-Smith, Richard P. Barke (2007)
Reconciling Scientists' Beliefs about Radiation Risks and Social Norms: 
Explaining Preferred Radiation Protection Standards
Risk Analysis 27 (3), 755–773.
doi:10.1111/j.1539-6924.2007.00919.x
http://www.blackwell-synergy.com/doi/abs/10.1111/j.1539-6924.2007.00919.x


Abstract:
Social scientists have argued about the role of political beliefs in 
highly charged policy debates among scientific experts. In debates about 
environmental hazards, the focus of contention is likely to rest on the 
appropriate scientific assumptions to inform safety standards. When 
scientific communities are polarized, one would expect to find 
systematic differences among combatants in the choice of appropriate 
assumptions, and variation in the application of "precaution" in 
standard setting. We test this proposition using an experiment applied 
in a mail survey format to groups of scientists from opposing sides of 
the nuclear policy debate. Questions were asked about the role of 
political, social, and epistemological beliefs in reaching scientific 
and policy judgments about the relationship between radiation dose and 
cancer incidence in human populations. We find that the precautionary 
tendency is pervasive regardless of whether the scientist is associated 
with a putatively pro- or anti-nuclear group. Using a multinomial logit 
model, we explain a modest percentage of the variation in the choice of 
preferred judgments about safety standards, but find that distinct sets 
of political and social values are significantly associated with policy 
positions among scientists. Implications for scientific advice to 
policymakers are discussed.

p


-----------------------------------------------------
Peter Bossew 

European Commission (EC) 
Joint Research Centre (JRC) 
Institute for Environment and Sustainability (IES) 

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Email: peter.bossew at jrc.it 

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