LSAT PREP 101 Section 1

Free A Citation G... (G CRA Instructional A... Test 101 / Section 1 Directions Passage Only View Find Text. Type Here UDOPP | AA = | Section Time Remaining: 26:53 To many developers of technologies that affect public health or 6. According to the passage, many lay people believe which one the environment, "risk communication" means persuading the of the following about risk communication? public that the potential risks of such technologies are small and should be ignored. Those who communicate risks in this way seem to believe that lay people do not understand the actual nature of A) It focuses excessively on mundane hazards. technological risk, and they can cite studies asserting that, although people apparently ignore mundane hazards that pose significant B It is a tool used to manipulate the public. O danger, they get upset about exotic hazards that pose little chance of death or injury. Because some risk communicators take this persuasive stance, many lay people see "risk communication" as a It is a major cause of inaccuracies in public knowledge O euphemism for brainwashing done by experts. about science. Since, however, the goal of risk communication should be to enable people to make informed decisions about technological D) It most often functions to help people make informed O risks, a clear understanding about how the public perceives risk is decisions. needed. Lay people's definitions of "risk" are more likely to reflect subjective ethical concerns than are experts' definitions. Lay people, for example, tend to perceive a small risk to children as E) Its level of effectiveness depends on the level of O more significant than a larger risk to consenting adults who benefit knowledge its audience already has. from the risk-creating technology. However, if asked to rank hazards by the number of annual fatalities, without reference to ethical judgments, lay people provide quite reasonable estimates, demonstrating that they have substantial knowledge about many risks. Although some studies claim to demonstrate that lay people have inappropriate concerns about exotic hazards, these studies often use questionable methods, such as asking lay people to rank risks that are hard to compare. In contrast, a recent study showed 2 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 | 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 O zm 45