Dr. Pete Bibby

I am currently a senior lecturer in Psychology. My research interests with respect to understanding risk are:

1) designing risk communication materials; 2) developing methods of assessing societal concerns about risk, both workplace and environmental; 3) the public understanding of health risks. This work is conducted with Professor Eamonn Ferguson, Dr Claire Lawrence and Ms Joanna Leaviss in the School of Psychology and Dr Andrew Weyman at the HSL.

The work on risk communication materials follows on from my early research in the design of instructional materials and combines this with the examination of the role of message framing in persuading people to take appropriate actions to reduce their risk-taking behaviour in the presence of hazards.

To successfully communicate risk information a basic requirement is an understanding of the concerns that societies have about particular hazards. Do people dread some hazards and not others? Do different groups in society have different assessments of the risks associated with some hazards? To what extent are trust and outrage an issue in understanding the public's responses to hazards? In what ways are societal attitudes to health risks similar to other kind of risks? Do expert and lay opinions differ and if so in what way?