Attitudes, Beliefs, and Behaviors about Cigarette-Butt Littering among College-Aged Adults in the United States.

This study reports attitudes, beliefs, and littering behaviors of 7532 college-aged cigarette smokers from across the United States. Four behavioral variables were measured: littering of last cigarette butt, number of butts littered in past 24 h, littering in past month, and ever having littered. Questions about beliefs centered on whether cigarette butts are biodegradable, if butts were harmful to the environment, and if butts are considered to be litter. One attitudinal question focused on whether seeing butts on the ground was bothersome. Littering was most likely among people who believed butts were biodegradable, believed they are not harmful to the environment, do not believe butts are litter, and among those with the attitude that littered butts are not bothersome. Logistic regression analyses found that the strongest influence on littering behavior was the attitude that seeing butts was bothersome. The second-strongest driver was the belief that butts are litter.

The social amplification of risk framework: New perspectives.

Several decades have elapsed since the introduction in 1988 of the social amplification of risk framework (SARF) by researchers from Clark University and Decision Research. SARF was offered as an umbrella under which social, psychological, and cultural theories of risk could be integrated and thereby supplement technical risk analyses. Some critics suggest that SARF cannot be tested thus, the framework is useful, at most, as a post hoc analysis of some kinds of risks. Others counter that predictability is not required for a framework to be useful and that SARF is an effective tool in organizing data related to public perceptions, values, and behaviors. It can also be used to design more effective risk communication and public engagement strategies. SARF also suggests how to conceptually view the dynamics of social media channels, despite the fact that SARF was developed before the explosion of global digital platforms. The papers in this special issue consider developments, refinements, critiques, contributions, extensions of the approach to new risk issues, as well as the findings and hypotheses that have grown out of what is now close to three decades of empirical research. This introductory paper provides background on SARF, presents a literature review since 2003, introduces the contributions to this issue, and highlights several areas for future research.

Social amplification of risks and the clean energy transformation: Elaborating on the four attributes of information.

The social amplification of risk framework (SARF) was developed to help comprehend how emerging contributions about the psychological, social, and cultural dimensions of risk could work in unison to impact decision making about risk. The framework proposed that risks are amplified or attenuated by interested parties employing different rhetorical strategies to give information about risk a certain "spin." The original literature identified four "attributes of information." However, despite the longevity of the framework, these have not been explicated in detail. Here we add depth and clarity by examining how amplification stations send risk signals that amplify or attenuate risk by emphasizing these different attributes of information. Drawing on a wealth of qualitative data from two case studies of offshore wind turbine siting off the coasts of Maryland and Delaware and guided by an extensive literature review, we reveal the strategies interested parties are using to influence siting decisions and risk management. The paper explores the usefulness of SARF in organizing qualitative information and sharpening insights on participatory risk governance and the nuances of public responses to a relatively new low-carbon technology. The authors conclude that the framework is valuable for analyzing stakeholder information while also recognizing limitations that may be addressed with some targeted future research.

Four Decades of Public Participation in Risk Decision Making.

Over the past four decades, the promise of public participation to improve decisions, obtain legitimacy, and build capacity for risk decision making and management has had a mixed record. In this article, we offer a narrative of how public participation has evolved in the United States and we examine prospects for its future. We trace three forces that have had significant impact on practice: an emergent emphasis on democratic deliberation, a transition from dichotomous thinking about science versus politics to an integrated perspective, and the recognition that different parties to the decision-making process bring valid epistemological contributions. The promise of public participation in risk decision making is challenged by loss of trust in institutions and individuals and by broad socio-political dynamics that are weakening democratic values and processes. These include the scarcity of attitudes and aptitudes supportive of public participation among both individuals and institutions; an anti-democratic political atmosphere that promotes disrespect; pursuit of private interests over the common good; failure to appreciate the limitations of dialogue and learning; underutilization of existing knowledge; and insufficient knowledge of how context matters. We end by offering several suggestions for focusing further research and improving practice.

Risks and risk governance in unconventional shale gas development.

A broad assessment is provided of the current state of knowledge regarding the risks associated with shale gas development and their governance. For the principal domains of risk, we identify observed and potential hazards and promising mitigation options to address them, characterizing current knowledge and research needs. Important unresolved research questions are identified for each area of risk; however, certain domains exhibit especially acute deficits of knowledge and attention, including integrated studies of public health, ecosystems, air quality, socioeconomic impacts on communities, and climate change. For these, current research and analysis are insufficient to either confirm or preclude important impacts. The rapidly evolving landscape of shale gas governance in the U.S. is also assessed, noting challenges and opportunities associated with the current decentralized (state-focused) system of regulation. We briefly review emerging approaches to shale gas governance in other nations, and consider new governance initiatives and options in the U.S. involving voluntary industry certification, comprehensive development plans, financial instruments, and possible future federal roles. In order to encompass the multiple relevant disciplines, address the complexities of the evolving shale gas system and reduce the many key uncertainties needed for improved management, a coordinated multiagency federal research effort will need to be implemented.

Public and stakeholder participation for managing and reducing the risks of shale gas development.

Emerging technologies pose particularly strong challenges for risk governance when they have multidimensional and inequitable impacts, when there is scientific uncertainty about the technology and its risks, when there are strong value conflicts over the perceived benefits and risks, when decisions must be made urgently, and when the decision making environment is rife with mistrust. Shale gas development is one such emerging technology. Drawing on previous U.S. National Research Council committee reports that examined risk decision making for complex issues like these, we point to the benefits and challenges of applying the analytic-deliberative process recommended in those reports for stakeholder and public engagement in risk decision making about shale gas development in the United States. We discuss the different phases of such a process and conclude by noting the dangers of allowing controversy to ossify and the benefits of sound dialogue and learning among publics, stakeholders, industry, and regulatory decision makers.

Science communication and vernal pool conservation: a study of local decision maker attitudes in a knowledge-action system.

In this study, we describe local decision maker attitudes towards vernal pools to inform science communication and enhance vernal pool conservation efforts. We conducted interviews with town planning board and conservation commission members (n = 9) from two towns in the State of Maine in the northeastern United States. We then mailed a questionnaire to a stratified random sample of planning board members in August and September 2007 with a response rate of 48.4% (n = 320). The majority of survey respondents favored the protection and conservation of vernal pools in their towns. Decision makers were familiar with the term "vernal pool" and demonstrated positive attitudes to vernal pools in general. General appreciation and willingness to conserve vernal pools predicted support for the 2006 revisions to the Natural Resource Protection Act regulating Significant Vernal Pools. However, 48% of respondents were unaware of this law and neither prior knowledge of the law nor workshop attendance predicted support for the vernal pool law. Further, concerns about private property rights and development restrictions predicted disagreement with the vernal pool law. We conclude that science communication must rely on specific frames of reference, be sensitive to cultural values, and occur in an iterative system to link knowledge and action in support of vernal pool conservation.

How preferences for public participation are linked to perceptions of the context, preferences for outcomes, and individual characteristics.

Practitioners and stakeholders involved in environmental and risk assessment and decision-making efforts have access to a growing list of policies and guidance for implementing good process. The advice is often general. There is little understanding of how situation specific features are relevant in new circumstances. In a series of ten case studies we investigated how people's (a) perceptions of the context, (b) preferences for outcomes, and (c) affiliations, experiences and motivations are related to their preferences for process features in a particular situation. The cases are in three policy areas: watershed management, forestry management, and clean-up and public health management of radioactively contaminated sites. We conclude this paper with a discussion of how the results can inform process design. Process design should be based on a diagnostic approach that specifically assesses relevant situational characteristics.

Planning for the human dimensions of oil spills and spill response.

Oil spill contingency planners need an improved approach to understanding and planning for the human dimensions of oil spills. Drawing on existing literature in social impact assessment, natural hazards, human ecology, adaptive management, global change and sustainability, we develop an integrative approach to understanding and portraying the human dimensions impacts of stressors associated with oil spill events. Our approach is based on three fundamental conclusions that are drawn from this literature review. First, it is productive to acknowledge that, while stressors can produce human impacts directly, they mainly affect intermediary processes and changes to these processes produce human impacts. Second, causal chain modeling taken from hazard management literature provides a means to document how oil spill stressors change processes and produce human impacts. Third, concepts from the global change literature on vulnerability enrich causal models in ways that make more obvious how management interventions lessen hazards and mitigate associated harm. Using examples from recent spill events, we illustrate how these conclusions can be used to diagrammatically portray the human dimensions of oil spills.