Within a democratic society, risk management policies need to be guided by public attitudes, perceptions, and preferences. A national survey effort can play a crucial role in helping decision makers in government and industry understand and appreciate citizens' views. Toward the objective, the project will design a prototype for a national survey covering a wide range of risk-related topics including risk perceptions, comparative evaluations of societal, technological, environmental, and health risks, and attitudes and opinions about risk management policies and strategies. The research will address questions about demographic characteristics, economic status, worldviews, and political values. The design of the prototype instrument will be the responsibility of Decision Research with the assistance of personnel from the Survey Research Center of the University of Maryland and an Advisory Committee. The survey instrument will be designed to allow researchers to develop and test theories and models of decision making pertaining to a wide range of societal risk issues, public policy formulation, and analysis.
