Dealing with Risk

For decades, policymakers and analysts have been frustrated by the disagreement between experts and the public on acceptable levels of environmental risk. Most experts, for instance, see no severe problem in dealing with nuclear waste, given the precautions and safety levels now in place. Yet public opinion vehemently rejects this view, repudiating both the experts' analysis and the evidence. Moving beyond the usual "rival rationalities" explanation proffered by risk analysts for the rift between expert and lay opinion, this book reveals the conflicts of intuition that undergird such concerns, and proposes an alternative approach to the psychology of persuasion and belief. Examining the role of intuition, mental habits, and cognitive frameworks in the construction of public opinion, it seeks to bridge the public policy impasse that has plagued controversial environmental issues. Howard Margolis is also the author of "Paradigms and Barriers: How Habits of Mind Govern Scientific Beliefs" and "Patterns, Thinking and Cognition: A Theory of Judgment", published by the University of Chicago Press.