Risk communication and non-linearity

This article will consider non-linearity and hormesis from the perspectives of risk perception and risk communication. The observations that follow do not come from a scientist or researcher. (For a richer academic treatment of the issue of risk communication and nonlinearity, see BELLE, Vol. 11, Issue 1, 2002). I was for 25 years a journalist on television and in print, focusing on coverage of environmental issues. I then studied and taught risk perception and risk communication at the Harvard School of Public Health. I now independently consult in these areas. From the academic side, I have read a fair amount of the literature that helps explain what I call ‘The Perception Gap,’ the gap between our fears and the facts. And as a journalist and consultant I have witnessed in the real world, people’s relatively greater fear of lesser risks, and relatively lower fear of the risks the scientific data suggest they ought to worry about more. I offer the following perspectives based on those foundations.