Communicating risk

doi:10.1017/CBO9780511543579.095

Communicating risk

from Psychology, health and illness

Published online by Cambridge University Press: 18 December 2014

David P. French and

Edited by

John Weinman and

David P. French: Affiliation:
University of Birmingham
Theresa M. Marteau: Affiliation:
King's College London
Susan Ayers: Affiliation:
University of Sussex
Andrew Baum: Affiliation:
University of Pittsburgh
Chris McManus: Affiliation:
St Mary's Hospital Medical School
Stanton Newman: Affiliation:
University College and Middlesex School of Medicine
Kenneth Wallston: Affiliation:
Vanderbilt University School of Nursing
John Weinman: Affiliation:
United Medical and Dental Schools of Guy's and St Thomas's
Robert West: Affiliation:
St George's Hospital Medical School, University of London

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Introduction

There is an increasing move towards communicating risk information to both patients and the wider public, fuelled by increasingly precise epidemiological estimates, technological developments allowing the use of biomarkers of risk as communication tools and the rise of interest in informed choice (see, for example, ‘Screening in healthcare’). As a consequence, concern about how best to communicate risk information and evaluate the impact of different methods of communicating risk has risen correspondingly. Communicating risk information should not be seen as an end in itself, but rather as a means to achieving one or more ultimate aims. Principally, these include communicating risk information to (a) facilitate informed choices; (b) motivate behaviour change to reduce identified risks and (c) provide reassurance while avoiding false reassurance. This chapter discusses why the current focus on communicating probabilistic information is insufficient for achieving these outcomes and describes other approaches which have shown more promise.

Risk communication as presenting probabilities

Much recent discussion of risk communication has centred on how numerical probability information should be presented (Calman & Royston, 1997; Edwards et al., 2001, 2002, 2003; Paling, 2003). At face value, presenting risk information in a probabilistic form is entirely reasonable: the information derives from epidemiological studies, which yield information about disease risks in terms of probabilities. However, there are reliable and systematic differences between estimates of actual risks, as calculated from mortality statistics and the public's perception of these (Lichtenstein et al., 1978) (see ‘Risk perception’).

Type: Chapter
Information: Cambridge Handbook of Psychology, Health and Medicine , pp. 431 - 435

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9780511543579.095 [Opens in a new window]

Publisher: Cambridge University Press

Print publication year: 2007

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Communicating risk

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