Document Type

Presentation

Publication Date

3-30-1995

Publisher

Communication and Our Environment: An Interdisciplinary Conference

Source Publication

Communication and Our Environment: An Interdisciplinary Conference

Abstract

In this paper, we propose a model that focuses on characteristics of individuals that, we feel, will predispose them to seek and process information about environmental health risks in different ways. Specifically, we suggest that five factors-(l) individual characteristics; (2) perceived hazard characteristics, (3) personal worry about the risk, (4) information sufficiency, (5) information gain self-efficacy-will influence the extent to which a person will seek out risk information in both routine and non-routine channels and the extent to which he or she will spend time and effort analyzing the risk information critically. Although currently not a part of the model, we expect that more active information seeking and processing could eventually affect a person's beliefs, attitudes, and behaviors in response to an environmental health risk. This line of research is important because, even with advances in medicine and technology, public health programs are expected to continue to rely on people making behavioral choices based on information they gather or receive about health risks.

Comments

Author version. "Superficial and Systematic Uses of Information About Environmental Risks." A Paper presented at the Communication and Our Environment: An Interdisciplinary Conference. Chattanooga, Tennessee, March 30-April 2, 1995 ©1995 The Author. Used with permission.

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