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Opinion Leadership and Risk Perception in Health-Related Consumer Protection
Project
Project code: BfR-RIKO-08-180701
Contract period: 01.07.2018
- 31.10.2019
Purpose of research: Inventory & Assessment
Knowledge about risk perception is important for effective risk communication to laypeople. Among the antecedents of risk perception are the perceived characteristics of a risk, the presentation of information about the risk as well as trust in information sources and the individual characteristics of the target audience. In a systematic literature review, Frewer et al. (2016) identify individual differences as a major research gap in understanding risk perception. One target group of special interest for risk communication consists of so-called opinion leaders. They are non-professional communicators with an impact on other people’s knowledge, opinions, attitudes and behaviors. They are trusted by friends and acquaintances and, as multipliers, inform others about potential risks, thus amplifying or inhibiting their risk perception through social influence (social amplification of risk). In past research, opinion leadership has been examined as a hugely diverse construct (e.g. general and issue-specific opinion leadership, self-designated or sociometric opinion leadership). Correlations were found between opinion leadership and innovativeness, information seeking, media and internet usage as well as issue-specific knowledge and involvement. However, the relationship between opinion leadership and risk perception has not been examined yet. To close that research gap, a representative telephone survey will be conducted. The objective is to find out how self-designated (a) general and (b) issue-specific opinion leadership in health-related consumer protection concerning food relates to risk perception of specific food safety issues. In addition, the relationship between opinion leadership and other antecedents of risk perception (risk propensity and institutional trust) will be determined. One special focus is on the work of the BfR. It will be examined how familiar opinion leaders are with the BfR, whether they trust the BfR and which information channels they use.
Section overview
Subjects
- Communication Sciences
- Toxicology