Beyond Perception: The Experience of Contamination and Its Ties to the Psychometric Paradigm. Terre Satterfield, Paul Slovic, and Robin Gregory, Decision Research, 1201 Oak Street, Eugene, Oregon, USA, 97401
Much of the work at Decision Research has focused historically on public perceptions of risk with regard to nuclear, toxic or carcinogenic agents. But the public is this work has been broadly defined and often abstractly characterized. It is something altogether different to judge the extent to which one dreads the idea of suggestion of carcinogenic exposure, than to be officially notified that the very neighborhood and home in which you live has been infected by toxins from a nearby pesticide plant. This toxic intrusion of body, home and neighborhood is precisely the case in Marshall, Georgia, a mostly poor and African American community. Residents nearest the Chemical Works Plant were systematically exposed to high levels of air- and water-borne arsenic generated by the plant. In this paper we examine one effort to translate the perception of risk into the measured experience of exposure so as to explore the applicability of risk concepts to actual, affected populations. Can these experiences be quantified in a viable manner and still resonate with the psychological, social and political experiences of residents? The successes and pitfalls with the analytic potention to cross-polinate two important fields—the quantitative perception of risk and the qualitative experience of contamination—will be discussed.