Sunday, October 9, 2011
Students' risk perceptions, part 2
I also asked my students to tell me about their attitudes towards costs of risk regulation, the role of the media, and the role of NGOs. The results are shown over the 12 year period. Very few students think that risks are unavoidable and we cannot do anything about them, that the press exaggerates environmental problems, or that NGOs are a nuisance. An earlier deep green attitude (as indicated by high agreement with the statement that risk should be regulated regardless of costs) has been replaced by a more mainstream/realistic view that risk reduction must be cost-effective. In 2009 there were clashes of opinion between deep greens and more contrarian views.
So very, very few of your students have ever believed that environmental risks are unavoidable or that the press exaggerates environmental problems.
ReplyDeleteThat is so depressing.
What planet do your students come from?
It's the entitlement generation: "someone else will pay for it".
ReplyDeleteIt will be a hard lesson for them when they find out they are the ones holding the bag.
I pity them, unlike me, who grew up in postwar poverty and had nothing but improvement potential ahead of me, these poor kids will suffer in the decline, where fewer and fewer exist to support their longer living elders.
Harald