Sara Grøn Perlstein

Abstract This study examines the influence of perceived social acceptability on engagement in risk talk. This study views risk perception as a socially negotiated phenomenon, where perceptions and discussions of risk are not just personal but also shaped by community norms and shared understandings. If people perceive a risk as widely accepted, they may be less likely to engage in conversation on that risk.

?Mathematical formulae have been encoded as MathML and are displayed in this HTML version using MathJax in order to improve their display. Uncheck the box to turn MathJax off. This feature requires Javascript. Click on a formula to zoom. Abstract Risk talk has recently received increased attention as a predictor of risk perception. If social interactions strongly influence how people think about risks, we first need to know how and why individuals engage in conversations on risk.

1 INTRODUCTION Risk perception research has long recognized the fact that risk perception is shaped by social interactions and is not simply a product of individual cognition (Breakwell, 2010; Douglas & Wildavsky, 1983; Russell & Babrow, 2011). Nevertheless, most empirical branches of the field prioritize individual factors above social interaction effects (Godovykh et al., 2021; Lechowska, 2018; Siegrist & Árvai, 2020).