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Women Are More Likely Than Men to Believe in Technological Hazards
Two complementary studies published in this month's issue of
Technology examine the responses of people who were surveyed
about their confidence in real or possible hazards that have received a lot
of media attention. The researchers, based at HSPH's Center
for Risk Analysis, found that women are more likely than men to believe
the hazards are real.
One study examines lay people's perceptions of eight hazards
that were chosen by a keyword search of national print media stories for
a two-year period. The other study examines differences between
the opinions of lay people and scientists.
Center for Risk Analysis-affiliated authors of a pair of reports measuring people's
confidence in hazard claims, from left to right: John Graham, Kim Clemente, Nicole Pasternak, and Roberta Glass.
The respondents were asked to rate their confidence in the existence of eight technological hazards: electromagnetic fields from power lines, global warming from carbon dioxide pollution, dust and particles in city air, natural radon gas in homes, medical x-rays, depletion of the stratospheric ozone layer, man-made chemicals, environmental tobacco smoke, and pesticide residues on foods.
When the perceptions of lay people and scientists were compared, some agreements and disagreements were found. Both groups expressed the most confidence in hazard claims made about environmental tobacco smoke and depletion of the ozone layer. Scientists were less confident than lay people about dangers from pesticides on foods or electromagnetic fields. Scientists were more likely than lay people to believe that hazards from medical x-rays exist.
John Graham, professor of policy and decision sciences and director of the center, said, "The good news is that people don't believe everything they hear in the media about technological hazards. The bad news is that the public's degree of confidence in some hazards does not appear to be supported by scientific opinion."
These research findings are consistent with previous studies
showing that women have more concerns about technological hazards than
do men. Graham noted, "The fact that this gender difference is
apparent among scientists as well as lay people suggests that the difference is not
attributable to the fact that men are better educated in science and
math than women."
See also: February 3, 1999 Press
Release
