induction as heuristicare, however, not well understoodas of today.Fearcan be
a cue to take accountof negative information but could also lead to despair (no
use of informationat all) or realisationthat fearmightbe a bad councillor
(Meijnderset al., 2001).As mentionedabove,fear may also be usedto stimulate
the awareness of personal relevance,so triggeringa central rather than a
peripheral processingof the subsequentarguments.Thismay complicate matters
evenfurtherwhen the aimsof fear and the messageare consideredas one.The
fear shouldbe aimedat avoidingthe risks,not at avoidingthe risk communi-
cation.So althoughemotionsseema powerful cue for peripheralprocessing of
information as wellas a potentialtriggerfor centralprocessing, owingto the
limited knowledgeof theirexactworking,it is hardto predicttheirexacteffect.
Understanding the effectsof emotions on attitudes and behaviouris currently
one of the majorresearch areas in socialpsychology.
It is not alwaysclearwhether information will be processed following the
centralof the peripheral route,or alternativelywhetherit willbe processed
systematicallyor heuristically,or even a mixthereof. Therefore, risk com-
munication effortshould ensurethat the messageconveyed in the logical
arguments (for systematic processing)and in the cues(trust,expertise,layout
and wording,etc.)is in concert. If this is not the case, perfectly validarguments
mightbe disregardedor perhaps evenworse, carefullybuilt imagesof trust-
worthiness and expertise might be lastingly damaged (Chaiken and
Maheswaran,1994).
6.4.3 Tailoredinformationcampaigns
Following the dualprocessapproach,as the personalrelevance increases,the
likelihood that information will be systematically processedwill increase. One
approach to effectiverisk communicationmayfocuson segmentingthe popula-
tion according to theirinformation needs,and developing specific information
with highlevels of personal relevance to specificgroups of respondents.
Informationis morelikely to resultin attitudechange(andsubsequentbehaviour
change) if perceivedpersonalrelevance is high(Pettyand Cacioppo,1986).An
example is providedby anotherarea of publichealth, that of HIVtransmission,
in the late1980sand early 1990s. Informationdeveloped by the medical
authorities focused on causeof the illness in termsof viral transmission,whereas
the risk informationwouldhavebeenbothmore salientto the population,and
moreeffective in preventingdisease,if it had focusedon people'sbehaviours
(Fischhoffet al., 1993).
The problem withsuchan approachis that it is resource intensive,as research
firstneedsto be conducted in orderto identifyindividualdifferences with
respectto people's perceptionsand behaviours,and thentailoredinformation
needs to be delivered using delivery mechanisms preferred by different
respondents.
Consumerperceptionsof risksfromfood 111