Synopses & Reviews
Synopsis
This book explains how to develop more effective risk communications using the Carnegie Mellon mental-model approach. Such communications are designed to contain, in readily usable form, the information that people need to make informed decisions about risks to health, safety, and the environment. In addition to expert knowledge of the risk, and careful empirical study of what the recipients already know, developing good risk communications requires inventiveness and creativity. The authors offer readers many examples that help point the way.
Table of Contents
1. Introduction; 2. The Carnegie Mellon mental models approach; 3. Creating an expert model of the risk; 4. Mental model interviews; 5. Confirmatory questionnaires; 6. Development and evaluation of communications; 7. Case studies: applications to environmental risks; 8. A mental models approach to HIV/AIDS; 9. Some concluding remarks; Appendices.