Risk Perception and Communication Unplugged: Twenty Years of Process¹

TLDR

Risk‑communication scholars and practitioners have accumulated two decades of lessons, often at personal cost, revealing common mistakes that can mislead newcomers. This essay presents a personal history of the field and delineates a series of developmental stages. Progress through these stages requires consolidating execution skills and recognizing the field’s limitations. Awareness of these stages can accelerate learning and highlight remaining knowledge gaps.

Abstract

Over the past twenty years, risk communication researchers and practitioners have learned some lessons, often at considerable personal price. For the most part, the mistakes that they have made have been natural, even intelligent ones. As a result, the same pitfalls may tempt newcomers to the field. This essay offers a personal (even confessional) history of the field over this period. It identifies a series of developmental stages. Progress through the stages involves consolidating the skills needed to execute it and learning its limitations. Knowing about their existence might speed the learning process and alert one to how much there still is to learn.