The PIs propose to develop a methodological tool for ranking risks. Since the society has a limited ability to reduce all risks, there is an obvious benefit in prioritizing the risks that must be confronted. The tool to be developed will include both public values and experts ratings as components of the risk assessment technique. The ranking process will involve categorization of the risks and identification of the attributes upon which the risks will be evaluated. Each group of assessors will both perform reductionistic and impressionistic ranking procedures in order to minimize the influence of procedural and framing effects on the assessment of risk. The PIs will also conduct a series of studies to help determine whether the procedure they develop will yield reproducible results.
