The characteristics on which we have chosen to focus are those that, in general, differ between environmental and public health programs. These characteristics, listed in Table 2, fall into two groups. The second comprises characteristics of the particular programs to control health and safety risks. These characteristics, which deal with the perceived intrusiveness of programs, how they are funded and how effective people perceive them to be, have not been studied in the literature on preferences for risk regulation.
Blame refer to how responsible people are for being exposed to a risk.
If a risk is perceived as difficult to avoid, then people are more likely to want the government's help in controlling the risk. In our focus groups, environmental risks such as air pollution or pesticide residues on food were usually viewed as difficult to avoid. Health and safety risks such auto accidents and smoking were viewed as easier to avoid. Ease of avoidance is the second of the risk characteristics on which we focus. In the psychometric literature and in this survey, Seriousness of risk is not defined for the respondent, but left to individual interpretation.