RISK COMMUNICATION

Innovations can empower and improve people’s lives, but innovations almost inevitably attract controversy. Over the years people have reacted negatively to pasteurization, irradiation, microwave cooking etc., and more recently, to additives to both food and animal feed, stabilizers, antibiotics and to genetically modified food. There is a need to communicate with people who are poorly informed, have an unjustified negative perception of a technology (or its corporate provider) or a low level of trust and high perception of risk associated with a technological innovation. Whilst many stakeholders in the food supply chain may have communication skills appropriate to their own specialist areas, communicating effectively in high-concern or high-stress situations requires a different set of communication skills. Players must become adept at risk communication, a science-based approach for communicating effectively in high-concern, low-trust, sensitive, or controversial situations. The techniques were developed by several sources including the U.S. National Academy of Sciences. Pioneering work was done to develop a theoretical basis and applications of risk communication by Vince Covello and his colleagues at the Centre for Risk Communication in New York. There are four vital elements of risk communication: 1) Winning over a person’s trust. People must know you care before they care what you know – Trust Determination Theory; 2) Minimizing the perception of risk. A higher perceived risk dramatically reduces trust and acceptance – Risk Perception Theory; 3) Reducing the mental noise. People under stress cannot absorb complex messages – Mental Noise Theory; and 4) Defeating negative dominance. Negatives are much more powerful than positives -- Negative Dominance Theory. Risk communication principles have been used to develop effective messages to communicate on controversial issues using a tool called “message maps”. It has also been used for effective oral communication in rebutting accusations about controversial food such as GMOs.

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