Lennart Sjoberg
Biographic Data
| ID | 3884617 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Lennart Sjoberg |
| GIVEN NAMES | Lennart |
| FAMILY NAME | Sjoberg |
| SIGNATURE | SJOBERG L |
| AFFILIATIONS | Stockholm School of Economics |
| ORCID | 0000-0001-8021-9253 |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 30 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 124 |
| WORKS AS AUTHOR | 30 |
| WORKS AS EDITOR | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 1967 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2006 |
| H-INDEX | 7 |
As Time Goes By
Attempts at studying risk issues in the social and behavioural sciences have now been going on for about 30 years. A brief summary of the first Swedish project, launched in 1975, and now available on the Internet site www.dynam‐it.com/risk, is presented. It was a fairly large‐scale attempt to review work then available or in a start‐up phase in several disciplines, mainly in the social sciences, but also in some of the humanities and in technolog…
Rational Risk Perception
Societal conflicts with regard to risk management are common. The public has different beliefs than many experts and administrators with regard to such issues as the citing of a repository for spent nuclear fuel or whether genetically modified organisms should be allowed to enter the human food chain. As a result, political tensions arise and there may be a skew allocation of resources for risk mitigation. The question raised in the article is if…
The importance of respect for empirical findings. Response to Tansey
Tansey has taken on the task to continue the defence of Cultural Theory of risk perception (Tansey, 2004b). To recapitulate, the theory was first proposed in a book by Douglas and Wildavsky (Dougla
Will the Real Meaning of Affect Please Stand Up
It is widely believed that affect plays an important role in risk perception, and that such perception is mainly governed by emotional processes. However, upon closer scrutiny it turns out that the belief is based on weak empirical evidence, if the words affect and emotion are interpreted according to their dominating meanings in natural language, and to common usage in psychology at large. Instead, severity of consequences emerges as a major fac…
Neglected and overemphasized risks
Research on risks has mainly been devoted to detailed analyses of such risks that are subject to public debate and policy decision making. However, many if not most of the risks that are now the subject of regulation were once neglected. Experts in conjunction with regulators have a crucial role in putting risks on the policy agenda. But what views do experts have on the matter of attention to risks? In order to answer this question risk assessme…
Lifestyles, and Risk Perception Consumer Behavior
In this article, the concept of lifestyle is traced to its early roots in personality psychology and in marketing. In the latter field, many commercial marketing firms have made strong claims as to the explanatory power of lifestyle dimensions, often based on procedures which have been kept secret, but researchers have seldom been able to verify such claims. In spite of this, the approach is very popular, has wide credibility and is often given v…
Tanning and risk perception in adolescents
Skin cancer is a rapidly increasing cancer form in many countries, and tanning is considered to be an etiologic factor of this type of cancer. Tanning is a type of risky behaviour, which has been found to be hard to change, particularly in the groups where it is most risky (children and adolescents). Exposure to ultraviolet radiation (UV), protective behaviour and risk perception with regard to tanning were investigated with a postal questionnair…
Internet Use, Social Skills, and Adjustment
The present study investigated the extent to which inter-personal skills, personality, and emotional intelligence (EI) were related to the extent of usage of the Internet, as measured with the Internet Addiction Scale, on a sample of undergraduates. EI was assessed by performance measures derived from the identification and labeling of emotions as shown in pictures of facial expressions, and as interpreted from descriptions of social episodes. Us…
Distal factors in risk perception
perceptions and intentions 1 1 The work on siting and local risk perception and attitudes discussed here was supported by a grant from the Swedish Nuclear Fuel & Waste Management Co
Risk perception, emotion and policy
This paper addresses the general question of the role of emotions in risk management, with an application to the siting of a repository for spent nuclear fuel. Although it is true that such siting has been very difficult to carry out without meeting with strong local opposition, there are some exceptions in recent Swedish experience. This recent experience constitutes an occasion for reconsidering the received message from risk perception researc…
Attitudes toward technology and risk
The Allegedly Simple Structure of Experts' Risk Perception
Experts have been claimed to perceive risks in a different way than the general public. It is likely that experts often see risks in their own field of expertise as smaller than the public does, but that does not imply that their risk perception is also driven by other factors. Topical experts and general risk assessors are two quite different types of experts. Still, common assertions as to the simple structure of expert risk perception, said to…
Risk perception by industrial radiographers
Perceptions of risks from two groups of industrial radiographers, one from Hungary, (n = 45) and from the United Kingdom, (n = 29) were compared by the psychometric method. The comparison was made because both groups were at risk for high doses of ionizing radiation. We found the groups had similar demographic profiles but poor socio-economic conditions of Hungarians were associated with higher levels of emotional distress. Correlation HU-UK for …
Fairness, risk and risk tolerance in the siting of a nuclear waste repository
In this paper, risk tolerance with regard to nuclear waste is investigated. It is shown that Swedish respondents did not readily accept a local high-level nuclear waste repository, contrary to claims based on polling data. The important role played in Sweden by misleading survey questions is pointed out and demonstrated on empirical data where formulations and procedures are varied. The acceptance of a local repository (measured as intention to v…
Newspaper reporting of hazards in the UK and Sweden
Public understanding of risks is likely to be informed by the media. We report a cross-national study looking at how newspapers in Sweden and the United Kingdom characterize a variety of risks, focusing on two months around the 10 th anniversary of the Chernobyl accident. Approximately four times as many reports about risks were found in Sweden as in the U.K., possibly reflecting a Swedish safety culture. The Bovine Spongiform Encephalopathy (BSE…
Factors in Risk Perception
Risk perception is a phenomenon in search of an explanation. Several approaches are discussed in this paper. Technical risk estimates are sometimes a potent factor in accounting for perceived risk, but in many important applications it is not. Heuristics and biases, mainly availability, account for only a minor portion of risk perception, and media contents have not been clearly implicated in risk perception. The psychometric model is probably th…
Perceived risk and tampering with nature
It is proposed that risk perception is partly driven by notions of what is seen as unnatural and immoral activities of modern technology, e.g. nuclear technology. The dimension of tampering with nature is found, in two large-scale survey studies of the general public and, in one case, of politicians involved in the environmental field, to be an important predictor of perceived risk. In one study, the perceived risk of nuclear waste was investigat…
Risk perception and the media
This is a survey of research on how media influence risk perception. Media are diverse in content, and often not as biased in their (news) reporting as is commonly thought. Although many take media's influence for granted, the evidence points the other way: even for heavy media users, media are probably not a strong causal factor in (especially not personal) risk perception. Risk perception may be affected by the media via availability (more info…
Consequences matter, ‘risk’ is marginal
Critical comments by Palm and Slovic on a previous article of mine (L. Sjöberg, Consequences of perceived risk: demand for mitigation, Journal of Risk Research 2, 129–149) are discussed. Palm’s arguments are largely based on misreading of my article, and her own studies, which she described in detail, are largely irrelevant in the present discussion. Slovic’s arguments are met by pointing out that the many references he cites in favour of his sta…
Consequences of perceived risk
This paper reports an investigation of demand for risk reduction, or risk intolerance. It has often been assumed that risk level is a good, almost self-evident, predictor of demand for risk reduction. However, few previous studies have addressed the issue explicitly. Two empirical studies are reported here. The first is concerned with a mixture of trivial, everyday risks and potentially fatal risks of the kind usually investigated in risk percept…
Worry and Risk Perception
Risk perception is sometimes measured by means of judgments about worry, sometimes as perceived risk more directly. However, perceived level of risk calls for a more intellectual judgment and worry tends to refer to emotional reactions. These two are therefore not the same and need not be strongly correlated. Results reported here show that perceived risk and worry are indeed weakly correlated, both for generalized worry and for more specific mea…
The rise of risk
Bills submitted to the Swedish parliament in 1964-65 and in 1993-95 were scored according to their major concern: risk, resource allocation or resource growth. It was found that risk related bills had increased strongly, from 11% to 28%, implying that currently almost a third of all bills in the Swedish parliament are related to risk issues. The absolute number of risk bills increased by a factor of four. Resource allocation bills, on the other h…
Mood and Positive Expectations
The relationships between expectations and the major mood dimensions of hedonic tone, activity level and tension were investigated. It was hypothesized that expectations of positive events should create a pleasant and active mood while negative expectations should give an unpleasant and tense mood Furthermore, it was also assumed that values and beliefs should determine mood mainly through their products. The hypotheses were partly confirmed in a…
Mood and Expected Outcome in a Test Situation
One determinant of mood may be expected outcome of action. This study investigated that hypothesis. Mood ratings were obtained from a group of students at the eve of a difficult and important exam. They also rated their habitual mood, pessimism-optimism and a number of aspects of expectations regarding the exam. Immediately following the exam, they again rated mood and perceived result as well as certain aspects of events during the exam. There w…
Interests, Effort, Achievement and Vocational Preference
S ummary . The components of interest in natural sciences and technology were studied in 100 students in the science and technology divisions of a Swedish secondary school. Also reported were perceived ability, success and invested effort in eight selected school subjects as well as vocational preferences and the reasons for these. Interests were found to be well accounted for by two factors—logical orientation and practical value. Interests and …
Risk perception and the media
This is a survey of research on how media influence risk perception. Media are diverse in content, and often not as biased in their (news) reporting as is commonly thought. Although many take media's influence for granted, the evidence points the other way: even for heavy media users, media are probably not a strong causal factor in (especially not personal) risk perception. Risk perception may be affected by the media via availability (more info…
Fairness, risk and risk tolerance in the siting of a nuclear waste repository
In this paper, risk tolerance with regard to nuclear waste is investigated. It is shown that Swedish respondents did not readily accept a local high-level nuclear waste repository, contrary to claims based on polling data. The important role played in Sweden by misleading survey questions is pointed out and demonstrated on empirical data where formulations and procedures are varied. The acceptance of a local repository (measured as intention to v…
Attitudes toward technology and risk
Perceived risk and tampering with nature
It is proposed that risk perception is partly driven by notions of what is seen as unnatural and immoral activities of modern technology, e.g. nuclear technology. The dimension of tampering with nature is found, in two large-scale survey studies of the general public and, in one case, of politicians involved in the environmental field, to be an important predictor of perceived risk. In one study, the perceived risk of nuclear waste was investigat…
Consequences of perceived risk
This paper reports an investigation of demand for risk reduction, or risk intolerance. It has often been assumed that risk level is a good, almost self-evident, predictor of demand for risk reduction. However, few previous studies have addressed the issue explicitly. Two empirical studies are reported here. The first is concerned with a mixture of trivial, everyday risks and potentially fatal risks of the kind usually investigated in risk percept…
Will the Real Meaning of Affect Please Stand Up
It is widely believed that affect plays an important role in risk perception, and that such perception is mainly governed by emotional processes. However, upon closer scrutiny it turns out that the belief is based on weak empirical evidence, if the words affect and emotion are interpreted according to their dominating meanings in natural language, and to common usage in psychology at large. Instead, severity of consequences emerges as a major fac…
Distal factors in risk perception
perceptions and intentions 1 1 The work on siting and local risk perception and attitudes discussed here was supported by a grant from the Swedish Nuclear Fuel & Waste Management Co
Consequences matter, ‘risk’ is marginal
Critical comments by Palm and Slovic on a previous article of mine (L. Sjöberg, Consequences of perceived risk: demand for mitigation, Journal of Risk Research 2, 129–149) are discussed. Palm’s arguments are largely based on misreading of my article, and her own studies, which she described in detail, are largely irrelevant in the present discussion. Slovic’s arguments are met by pointing out that the many references he cites in favour of his sta…
Neglected and overemphasized risks
Research on risks has mainly been devoted to detailed analyses of such risks that are subject to public debate and policy decision making. However, many if not most of the risks that are now the subject of regulation were once neglected. Experts in conjunction with regulators have a crucial role in putting risks on the policy agenda. But what views do experts have on the matter of attention to risks? In order to answer this question risk assessme…
Rational Risk Perception
Societal conflicts with regard to risk management are common. The public has different beliefs than many experts and administrators with regard to such issues as the citing of a repository for spent nuclear fuel or whether genetically modified organisms should be allowed to enter the human food chain. As a result, political tensions arise and there may be a skew allocation of resources for risk mitigation. The question raised in the article is if…
Risk perception, emotion and policy
This paper addresses the general question of the role of emotions in risk management, with an application to the siting of a repository for spent nuclear fuel. Although it is true that such siting has been very difficult to carry out without meeting with strong local opposition, there are some exceptions in recent Swedish experience. This recent experience constitutes an occasion for reconsidering the received message from risk perception researc…
The Allegedly Simple Structure of Experts' Risk Perception
Experts have been claimed to perceive risks in a different way than the general public. It is likely that experts often see risks in their own field of expertise as smaller than the public does, but that does not imply that their risk perception is also driven by other factors. Topical experts and general risk assessors are two quite different types of experts. Still, common assertions as to the simple structure of expert risk perception, said to…
The importance of respect for empirical findings. Response to Tansey
Tansey has taken on the task to continue the defence of Cultural Theory of risk perception (Tansey, 2004b). To recapitulate, the theory was first proposed in a book by Douglas and Wildavsky (Dougla
The rise of risk
Bills submitted to the Swedish parliament in 1964-65 and in 1993-95 were scored according to their major concern: risk, resource allocation or resource growth. It was found that risk related bills had increased strongly, from 11% to 28%, implying that currently almost a third of all bills in the Swedish parliament are related to risk issues. The absolute number of risk bills increased by a factor of four. Resource allocation bills, on the other h…
Lifestyles, and Risk Perception Consumer Behavior
In this article, the concept of lifestyle is traced to its early roots in personality psychology and in marketing. In the latter field, many commercial marketing firms have made strong claims as to the explanatory power of lifestyle dimensions, often based on procedures which have been kept secret, but researchers have seldom been able to verify such claims. In spite of this, the approach is very popular, has wide credibility and is often given v…
A Measure Of Similarity Between Individuals When Scoring Directions Of Variables Are Arbitrary
Holley and Guilford have proposed an index, G, originally intended for use in Q type factor analysis when scoring directions are arbitrary. G is appropriate for dichotomous data only. In this paper, a general measure is derived which is identical to G in the case of dichotomous data. The measure is approximately equal to the mean inter-person covariance when all permutations of scoring directions are considered. The measure is also closely connec…
Some Characteristics Of The G Index Of Agreement
Several uses of the G index of agreement are discussed for both Q- and R-techniques. It is shown that the index is meaningful and is not sensitive either to changes in having direction (for profile analysis) or to marginal inequalities for dichotomous data
Uncertainty of Comparative Judgements and Multidimensional Structure
An analysis of preferences with respect to silhouette drawings of nude females is presented. Systematic intransitivities were discovered. The dispersions of differences (comparatal dispersions) were shown to reflect the multidimensional structure of the stimuli, a finding expected on the basis of prior work. Difference ratings of these stimuli were analyzed by the TORSCA and INDSCAL procedures. The three stimulus dimensions all appeared in the mu…
Models of similarity and intensity
Mood and Expected Achievement
Starting from a three-dimensional conception of mood (pleasantness, activation, and calmness) it was assumed that activation and/or calmness should reflect strength and centrality of desires present, while pleasantness should reflect expected goal achievement. These assumptions were tested in a study where a mood questionnaire and rating scales concerning task aspects were administered to students before and after an undergraduate exam. It was fo…
Interests, Effort, Achievement and Vocational Preference
S ummary . The components of interest in natural sciences and technology were studied in 100 students in the science and technology divisions of a Swedish secondary school. Also reported were perceived ability, success and invested effort in eight selected school subjects as well as vocational preferences and the reasons for these. Interests were found to be well accounted for by two factors—logical orientation and practical value. Interests and …
Mood and Positive Expectations
The relationships between expectations and the major mood dimensions of hedonic tone, activity level and tension were investigated. It was hypothesized that expectations of positive events should create a pleasant and active mood while negative expectations should give an unpleasant and tense mood Furthermore, it was also assumed that values and beliefs should determine mood mainly through their products. The hypotheses were partly confirmed in a…
Mood and Expected Outcome in a Test Situation
One determinant of mood may be expected outcome of action. This study investigated that hypothesis. Mood ratings were obtained from a group of students at the eve of a difficult and important exam. They also rated their habitual mood, pessimism-optimism and a number of aspects of expectations regarding the exam. Immediately following the exam, they again rated mood and perceived result as well as certain aspects of events during the exam. There w…
Worry and Risk Perception
Risk perception is sometimes measured by means of judgments about worry, sometimes as perceived risk more directly. However, perceived level of risk calls for a more intellectual judgment and worry tends to refer to emotional reactions. These two are therefore not the same and need not be strongly correlated. Results reported here show that perceived risk and worry are indeed weakly correlated, both for generalized worry and for more specific mea…
The rise of risk
Bills submitted to the Swedish parliament in 1964-65 and in 1993-95 were scored according to their major concern: risk, resource allocation or resource growth. It was found that risk related bills had increased strongly, from 11% to 28%, implying that currently almost a third of all bills in the Swedish parliament are related to risk issues. The absolute number of risk bills increased by a factor of four. Resource allocation bills, on the other h…
Consequences of perceived risk
This paper reports an investigation of demand for risk reduction, or risk intolerance. It has often been assumed that risk level is a good, almost self-evident, predictor of demand for risk reduction. However, few previous studies have addressed the issue explicitly. Two empirical studies are reported here. The first is concerned with a mixture of trivial, everyday risks and potentially fatal risks of the kind usually investigated in risk percept…
Newspaper reporting of hazards in the UK and Sweden
Public understanding of risks is likely to be informed by the media. We report a cross-national study looking at how newspapers in Sweden and the United Kingdom characterize a variety of risks, focusing on two months around the 10 th anniversary of the Chernobyl accident. Approximately four times as many reports about risks were found in Sweden as in the U.K., possibly reflecting a Swedish safety culture. The Bovine Spongiform Encephalopathy (BSE…
Factors in Risk Perception
Risk perception is a phenomenon in search of an explanation. Several approaches are discussed in this paper. Technical risk estimates are sometimes a potent factor in accounting for perceived risk, but in many important applications it is not. Heuristics and biases, mainly availability, account for only a minor portion of risk perception, and media contents have not been clearly implicated in risk perception. The psychometric model is probably th…
Perceived risk and tampering with nature
It is proposed that risk perception is partly driven by notions of what is seen as unnatural and immoral activities of modern technology, e.g. nuclear technology. The dimension of tampering with nature is found, in two large-scale survey studies of the general public and, in one case, of politicians involved in the environmental field, to be an important predictor of perceived risk. In one study, the perceived risk of nuclear waste was investigat…
Risk perception and the media
This is a survey of research on how media influence risk perception. Media are diverse in content, and often not as biased in their (news) reporting as is commonly thought. Although many take media's influence for granted, the evidence points the other way: even for heavy media users, media are probably not a strong causal factor in (especially not personal) risk perception. Risk perception may be affected by the media via availability (more info…
Consequences matter, ‘risk’ is marginal
Critical comments by Palm and Slovic on a previous article of mine (L. Sjöberg, Consequences of perceived risk: demand for mitigation, Journal of Risk Research 2, 129–149) are discussed. Palm’s arguments are largely based on misreading of my article, and her own studies, which she described in detail, are largely irrelevant in the present discussion. Slovic’s arguments are met by pointing out that the many references he cites in favour of his sta…
Risk perception by industrial radiographers
Perceptions of risks from two groups of industrial radiographers, one from Hungary, (n = 45) and from the United Kingdom, (n = 29) were compared by the psychometric method. The comparison was made because both groups were at risk for high doses of ionizing radiation. We found the groups had similar demographic profiles but poor socio-economic conditions of Hungarians were associated with higher levels of emotional distress. Correlation HU-UK for …
Fairness, risk and risk tolerance in the siting of a nuclear waste repository
In this paper, risk tolerance with regard to nuclear waste is investigated. It is shown that Swedish respondents did not readily accept a local high-level nuclear waste repository, contrary to claims based on polling data. The important role played in Sweden by misleading survey questions is pointed out and demonstrated on empirical data where formulations and procedures are varied. The acceptance of a local repository (measured as intention to v…
Attitudes toward technology and risk
The Allegedly Simple Structure of Experts' Risk Perception
Experts have been claimed to perceive risks in a different way than the general public. It is likely that experts often see risks in their own field of expertise as smaller than the public does, but that does not imply that their risk perception is also driven by other factors. Topical experts and general risk assessors are two quite different types of experts. Still, common assertions as to the simple structure of expert risk perception, said to…
Distal factors in risk perception
perceptions and intentions 1 1 The work on siting and local risk perception and attitudes discussed here was supported by a grant from the Swedish Nuclear Fuel & Waste Management Co
Risk perception, emotion and policy
This paper addresses the general question of the role of emotions in risk management, with an application to the siting of a repository for spent nuclear fuel. Although it is true that such siting has been very difficult to carry out without meeting with strong local opposition, there are some exceptions in recent Swedish experience. This recent experience constitutes an occasion for reconsidering the received message from risk perception researc…
Tanning and risk perception in adolescents
Skin cancer is a rapidly increasing cancer form in many countries, and tanning is considered to be an etiologic factor of this type of cancer. Tanning is a type of risky behaviour, which has been found to be hard to change, particularly in the groups where it is most risky (children and adolescents). Exposure to ultraviolet radiation (UV), protective behaviour and risk perception with regard to tanning were investigated with a postal questionnair…
Internet Use, Social Skills, and Adjustment
The present study investigated the extent to which inter-personal skills, personality, and emotional intelligence (EI) were related to the extent of usage of the Internet, as measured with the Internet Addiction Scale, on a sample of undergraduates. EI was assessed by performance measures derived from the identification and labeling of emotions as shown in pictures of facial expressions, and as interpreted from descriptions of social episodes. Us…
The importance of respect for empirical findings. Response to Tansey
Tansey has taken on the task to continue the defence of Cultural Theory of risk perception (Tansey, 2004b). To recapitulate, the theory was first proposed in a book by Douglas and Wildavsky (Dougla
Psychology (26 works) · Risk Perception and Management (20 works) · Social Psychology (18 works) · Risk perception (17 works) · Perception (16 works) · Social Psychology (13 works) · Climate Change Communication and Perception (12 works) · Economics (10 works) · Business (9 works) · Political science (8 works)