Information Processing and Risk Perception: An Adaptation of the Heuristic-Systematic Model

The heuristic-systematic information-processing model (HSM) holds that individuals will use 1 or both of these modes of information processing when attempting to evaluate information in order to arrive at a judgment. Using survey data, an adaptation of this model is evaluated across a series of 3 cases in which epidemiological information is communicated to communities concerned about cancer rates. This adaptation of the HSM proves to be a potentially useful model for understanding how individuals perceive risk. Although the model does vary across the 3 applications enough to justify inclusion of the case as a control variable, relationships among the model's most important constituent variables are generally consistent and strong. A quarter to a third of the variance in risk perception is predicted by information processing in a structural model having an acceptably close fit to the data.