What do sushi, climbing and smoking having in common? How we talk about risk
Next week, Sara Perlstein will defend her PhD on risk talk: the everyday conversations we have about risks with people close to us. From eating sushi to climbing or smoking, these informal talks shape how we deal with danger in other ways than official health advice does.
Your research focuses on risk talk. What do you mean by that?
‘When I began my PhD, I was working on the broad topic of risk communication. But when I started reading the literature, I was struck by how little attention was paid to daily conversations about risk. That seemed odd, since this was just after COVID and I had many conversations about health risks and lifestyle.
So I wondered if we should be interested in these informal conversations (what I call risk talk) as a part of risk communication?’
And your research suggest that we should.
‘Yes. My general impression is that when a risk is less socially accepted, people are more willing to discuss it in depth. Take alcohol and smoking. Drinking alcohol is widely accepted in daily life, while smoking has become increasingly criticised in public opinion. I found that people are much more willing to weigh the pros and cons of smoking than about the risks of alcohol.
The same pattern appears with eating sushi and eating a raw egg. Both involve consuming raw food, yet people are far more inclined to discuss the risks of eating a raw egg, even though the actual risk is very small. Sushi, by contrast, is socially accepted and therefore less questioned.’
What does this tell us about how risk talk works?
‘In crisis communication, greater uncertainty often leads to more discussion because there is less to hold on to. A similar dynamic happens here. When a risk is less socially accepted, people feel the need to talk it through. To find out what their social group thinks, weighing the pros, cons, risks and benefits.
I saw this, for example, when comparing climbing and skiing. Fewer people are willing to accept the risk of climbing than skiing, and climbing was discussed more in depth.’
So risk talk has an important social function?
‘I noticed that people talk very differently depending on the type of risk. When someone has the flu, conversations tended to be vague in coordination and stayed general: wash your hands and be careful. But when the topic was about lifestyle-related risk, conversations center much more on individual responsibility and people offer concrete advice and support.
'The emotional and relational functions of risk talk have been largely overlooked'
Very little of the talk was actually about exchanging information. Instead these conversations were more about relational and emotional work, and also practical support. People use risk talk to vent frustration, for instance worrying about someone’s candy intake and the risk of diabetes. In one case there was an elderly man who was afraid of falling while walking. When he shared this fear, his family offered to walk with him instead of discussing the risks.
The emotional and relational functions of risk talk have been largely overlooked. In my entire literature review, I found only one article that explicitly addressed the emotional and relational functions of risk talk.’
You clearly filled a gap in the literature. What does this mean for how we communicate about risks?
‘My work is more on a conceptual level, but for policymakers and risk communicators, the first step is awareness. Informal conversations are already happening, and they matter.
Rather than only sending out information campaigns and hoping they land, it helps to understand what is going on in people’s lives and relationships. Risk communication is not just about transmitting knowledge, it depends on meaningful interaction. Conversations with family members or close friends can be a powerful way of dealing with risk.’
On Wednesday 22 April at 11:30 hrs., Sara Perlstein will defend her PhD thesis 'Making Sense of Risk Together', at the Academy Building in Leiden. More information is available in the Leiden University events calendar.