Risk
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Risk compensation postulates that everyone has a "risk thermostat" and that safety measures that do not affect the setting of the thermostat will be circumvented by behaviour that re-establishes the level of risk with which people were originally comfortable. It explains why, for example, motorists drive faster after a bend in the road is straightened. Cultural theory explains risk-taking behaviour by the operation of cultural filters. It postulates that behaviour is governed by the probable costs and benefits of alternative courses of action which are perceived through filters formed from all the previous incidents and associations in the risk-taker's life.; "Risk" should be of interest to many readers throughout the social sciences and in the world of industry, business, engineering, finance and public administration, since it deals with a fundamental part of human behaviour that has enormous financial and economic implications. Booknews An outgrowth of a Risk and Rationality research project for the Economic and Social Research Council. Explores the cultural and social factors that determine or influence people's sense of acceptable risk, as a beginning to finding ways to alter that sense. The theme is based on the observation that safety practices such as seat belts and bicycle helmets generally encourage people to take more chances to maintain their acceptable level of risk. Makes available the relevant anthropological work of Weber, Durkheim, Marx, Malinowski, and others. The examples range from financial investment through driving to the greenhouse effect. Paper edition (unseen), $21.95. Annotation c. Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)
PrefaceAcknowledgements1Risk: An Introduction12Risk and the Royal Society73Patterns in Uncertainty294Error, Chance and Culture515Measuring Risk696Monetizing Risk937Road Safety 1: Seat Belts1138Road Safety 2: More Filtering1359A Large Risk: The Greenhouse Effect15910The Risk Society17911Can We Manage Risk Better?197References217Index225
