What is Risk?
Background
Our communities are faced today with a number of challenges that threaten human health, the environment, and our society more broadly. Dealing with these challenges requires the ability to identify, assess, manage, as well as communicate risk.
What is risk?
Risk is defined as the possibility of an adverse event or effect occurring. More specifically, risks are often described in terms of hazard and likelihood.
A hazard is an adverse or unwanted consequence of an event. In simple terms, a hazard is described by answering the question “What can go wrong?” The associated likelihood is the probability of the event occurring, or “How likely is that event to happen?” Risk is therefore the product of both hazard and probability.
The field of risk science is used in a variety of fields such as health, environmental protection, as well as finance and insurance, as a way to understand, manage, and communicate risks to different audiences. Overall, risk science relies on:
- Risk assessment – to identify, evaluate, and quantify (if possible) a given risk
- Risk management – to handle or deal with a given risk, including taking steps to prevent, mitigate, or adapt a risk to an acceptable level
- Risk communication- to communicate or provide information to individuals or groups of individuals regarding a particular risk.
How can risk science help us in our everyday lives?
Risk sciences can help us in our lives in many ways. By understanding and managing risks, we can make better decisions that may improve our health and well-being. Risk sciences can also help decision-makers deal with small and large challenges in our communities.
For example, we rely on risk science to be able to identify different threats and dangers to our health, including risks posed by infectious diseases, chemical contaminants in the environment, or even workplace safety issues. We also rely on risk science to protect our environment, by investigating different impacts from pollution.
We also rely on risk sciences to help improve the overall sustainability of our environment and communities. For this, we first need to identify different hazards or threats to sustainability, manage these hazards, as well as communicate potential risks to affected individuals and stakeholders.
How can we communicate risk information to our communities?
Risk-related information should be communicated in order that individuals or groups of individuals can make informed decisions. In addition, it is also important that risk managers and decision-makers communicate risks to improve transparency and build trust among community members and stakeholders.
Our everyday lives are filled with numerous examples of risk-based communication. For example, we see warning labels on foods that contain food allergens (e.g. milk, soy, nuts, eggs, etc.), and we also see warning labels on products hazardous to our health, such as tobacco products. Other common examples including warning signs at the beach that display information that a life guard is not on duty or that there may be rip currents, and swimmers should therefore swim with care.
Overall, good risk communication should provide clear and direct information to empower people to make decisions about the risks they face.
How can I learn more about risk?
You can learn more about risk through a number of ways. A few key references are included below, along with links to videos and other resources.
- Aven, T. 2020. The Science of Risk Analysis: Foundation and Practice. New York, NY: Routledge.
- Cho, H., Reimer, T., and McComas, K. 2014. The SAGE Handbook of Risk Communication. Los Angeles, CA: SAGE.
- Grieger, K., Horgan, M., Cummings C. 2023. Let’s Talk About Risk: A Guide to Identifying, Assessing, Managing, and Communicating Risk. NC State Extension, Available: https://content.ces.ncsu.edu/lets-talk-about-risk-a-guide-to-identifying-assessing-managing-and-communicating-risk
- Resources through the Society for Risk Analysis: https://www.sra.org/resources/
- Risk Bites: https://www.youtube.com/user/riskbites
- U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). 2022. Learn about Risk Communication. Available: https://www.epa.gov/risk-communication/learn-about-risk-communication