Factors involved in risk perception

The ability to avoid the hazards that abound in the environment is affected by our capabilities for recognizing the hazards. The estimates of risk associated with different hazards will presumably affect the effort used to avoid them. The experiment was designed to examine perception of risk to oneself versus others, and explore the extent to which commonalities among different hazards may produce similar risk estimates. Data from 136 females and 98 males suggested that only younger males perceived themselves as less at risk than other sorts of individuals, but not less than other young males. Factor analysis techniques suggested a grouping based on perceived level of risk. The results were interpreted to indicate both situational and individual components are involved in risk estimates, and that this has implications for development of training techniques and warnings.