Politics and bias in risk assessment

Abstract

Whereas formal risk assessments can rationalize decision making in organizations, political and other biases remain. This article examines the origins of risk analysis in conflicts of political interest. The history of probabilistic risk analysis in the nuclear industry illustrates the problem. This involves the nexus between experts and political judgment (focusing on expert behavior in the wake of Chernobyl), and the connection between risk analysis and ideology in decision making (focusing on the issue of deliberate deception in risk assessment). © 1988.