The main goal of risk communication is to provide relevant, accurate and purposeful information. This information must be targeted, clear and coherent because communicating risk effectively has the ability to shapes people’s perceptions of risk and influences their actions. It also influences the intervention decisions that are made as a result of a person’s choice.
Here are some resources that we’d recommend for different groups of people looking to communciate risk. There are also resources for people in specific fields.
Communicating Risks & Benefits: An Evidence-Based User’s Guide edited by Baruch Fischhoff, Noel T Brewer and Julie Downs for the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), 2011
Risk Perception and Communication Unplugged: Twenty years of Process by Baruch Fischhoff in Risk Analysis, 1995
Risk and Uncertainty Communication by David Spiegelhalter in Annual Review of Statistics and Its Applications, 2017
Visualising Uncertainty About the Future by David Spiegelhalter, Mike Pearson and Ian Short in Science, 2011
Probability Information in Risk Communication: A Review of the Research Literature by Vivianne H. M. Visschers, Ree M. Meertens, Wim W. F. Passchier and Nanne N. K. De Vries in Risk Analysis, 2009
A systematic review on communicating with patients about evidence by Lyndal J Trevena, Alexandra Barratt, Phyllis Butow and Patrina Caldwell in the Journal of Evaluation of Clinical Practice, 2005
Resources for Health Professionals
Resources for civil servants and government officials
Resources for Journalists
Resources for Legal Professionals