This is an ambitious project to address an important issue of national consequence. The proposed research will compare risk attitudes and perceptions in the United States and Japan. Although both the United States and Japan are highly industrialized countries, their approaches to managing technological risks are quite different. The United States relies primarily on a "confrontational model" characterized by adversarial relationships between interested parties, widespread public participation, and extensive use of the legal system. The Japanese approach, in comparison, is based on a "cooperative model" centered upon private negotiations between government and industry with an emphasis on consensus building. The proposal hypothesizes that these contrasting approaches are reflected in major differences in public attitudes and perceptions of risk in general and risk management in particular. This project will examine these differences by carrying out parallel studies of risk attitudes and risk perceptions in both countries. The research will be conducted in cooperation with colleagues in Japan. The investigators will draw upon their extensive prior experience in analyzing the components of risk in various populations. Besides providing information that will be relevant to the future interactions between the two countries, this comparison will increase basic understanding of national risk- management styles and approaches.
