Chemophobia today: Determinants, consequences and implications for risk communication

Abstract

The present thesis aimed to empirically investigate the public’s irrational fear of chemicals, which is generally termed “chemophobia.” In an effort to understand the public’s perceptions of chemicals, the associations evoked by the term “chemicals” were identified. The results indicated that chemicals tend to be associated with both negative images (e.g., death, poison) and negative affect (Chapter II). Additionally, several misconceptions in relation to the basic toxicological principles (e.g., the dose-response insensitivity) seemed to exist among consumers. These misconceptions appeared to be the most important and consistent determinants of chemophobia (Chapters II and III). Other determinants of chemophobia were identified (e.g., health concerns), although some (e.g., trust in regulators) were not found to be related to chemophobia in all the European countries investigated (Chapter III). Moreover, regarding the consequences of chemophobia, evidence was found that chemophobia impacts not only the public’s acceptance of chemical products but also their acceptance of technologies. In the case of agriculture (Chapter IV), chemophobics were identified as being more likely to reject the use of pesticides and biotechnologies (i.e., gene technology) as crop protection measures. This rejection could be due to the perceived low degree of naturalness of the two types of measures. Ultimately, the findings of this thesis suggested that chemophobia is not a psychological disease. Rather, it is an irrational fear of entities perceived to be synthetic, characterized by a set of misconceptions regarding the risks of natural and synthetic chemicals. Communicating information regarding basic toxicological principles to the public can serve to mitigate chemophobia and thus, facilitate informed decision-making regarding chemicals (Chapter V). However, regional differences and psychological factors (e.g., ideational beliefs) must be accounted for if the success of the information provision strategy is to be ensured.