- Author
-
National Academy of Engineering
- Coporate
- National Academy of Engineering, Washington, DC
- Book or Conf
- Perspectives on Benefit-Risk Decision Making. Report of a Colloquium Conducted by the Committeeon Public Engineering Policy, National Academy of Engineering. April 26-27, 1971,
163 p.,
1971
- Keywords
-
decision making
|
health hazards
|
human response
|
risks
|
human factors engineering
- Abstract
- Decisions involving risks and benefits affecting human health and safety are made every day by almost everyone. Some of these decisions involve only the individual making them, and present issues of public policy only insofar as government influences the conditions in which the individual makes his choice. Other decisions affect both other individuals and society as a whole and thus concern the policy maker. Often the full implications of these decisions, with respect to both benefits and risks, are not perceived by the decision maker. There are many reasons why this might be the case, ranging from a simple lack of data to a psychological reluctance to make explicit the statisticsl probability of injury or death resulting from a decision.