title: A new look at the psychometric paradigm of perception of hazards.
abstract: The psychometric paradigm has been the most influential model in the field of risk analysis. The "cognitive maps" of hazards produced by the paradigm seem to explain how laypeople perceive the various risks they face. Because most of the studies used aggregated data, analyzed using principal component analysis, it is not known whether the model neglects individual differences in risk perception. There has been much criticism on the fact that few studies have examined individual differences in the cognitive representation of hazards. In order to detect and describe the internal structure of the three-way data, we conducted a three-way component analysis (3MPCA). Data for the present analysis were derived from a mail survey conducted in Switzerland. Participants were asked to judge 9 attributes for 26 hazards. Individual differences in the cognitive representation of hazards were correlated with external variables (e.g., general trust). The results suggest that methods permitting individual differences should be used more frequently and that utilizing different methods could provide greater insight into the cognitive representation of risks.
authors.affiliation: Human-Environment Interaction, Swiss Federal Institute of Technology, ETH Centre HAD, CH-8092 Zürich, Switzerland. michael.siegrist@env.ethz.ch
authors.forename: Michael
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Siegrist
authors.forename: Carmen
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Keller
authors.forename: Henk A L
authors.initials: HA
authors.lastname: Kiers
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D001007:Anxiety; D003625:Data Collection; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D015233:Models, Statistical; D008962:Models, Theoretical; D010465:Perception; D016016:Proportional Hazards Models; D011594:Psychometrics / Q000379:methods*; D012044:Regression Analysis; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D018570:Risk Assessment; D012307:Risk Factors; D012449:Safety; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires