Abstract of Meeting Paper

The 1996 Annual Meeting of the Society for Risk Analysis-Europe

Perceived Risks in France: Contribution to a European Cross-Cultural Perspective. C. M. Mays, Institut Symlog, Cachan, France; and J. Brenot, DPHD-SEGR, Institute for Nuclear Safety and Protection, Fontenay-aux-Roses, France

The study presented here is part of a European project on risk perception and communication funded by the European Commission (DG XII). A single questionnaire, designed and translated by the research partners is administered to national samples in Sweden, France, United Kingdom, Norway and Spain, at three time periods in 1996: before, during, and after the Tchernobyl tenth anniversary. The evolution of risk perceptions in relation to media attention to the anniversary (an elaborated standard scheme is used to evaluate press articles in each country) and cross-cultural aspects are studied.

We will present the French data collected in the first wave (March 1996).