Skip to main content

Thank you for visiting nature.com. You are using a browser version with limited support for CSS. To obtain the best experience, we recommend you use a more up to date browser (or turn off compatibility mode in Internet Explorer). In the meantime, to ensure continued support, we are displaying the site without styles and JavaScript.

Chemophobia in Europe and reasons for biased risk perceptions

Nature Chemistry volume 11, pages 1071–1072 (2019)Cite this article

Subjects

Very few consumers are aware that chemistry and synthetic chemicals are indispensable in making everyday goods because the products that people buy — such as cell phones, cars and processed foods — are typically far removed from the raw chemicals used in their production.

The human and economic progress that has occurred over the past couple of decades is remarkable1. These advances have only been possible because of an extensive division of labour, but one downside of this development is that consumers typically lack detailed knowledge about how the goods they use in their daily lives are actually produced. This leads laypeople to rely on mental shortcuts when evaluating associated benefits and risks, especially when it comes to chemicals, for example.

This is a preview of subscription content, access via your institution

Access options

Rent or buy this article

Prices vary by article type

from$1.95

to$39.95

Learn more

Prices may be subject to local taxes which are calculated during checkout

Fig. 1: Surveying chemical knowledge in eight European countries.

Similar content being viewed by others

References

  1. Rosling, H. Factfulness (Sceptre, 2018).

  2. Bearth, A., Saleh, R. & Siegrist, M. Food Chem. Toxicol. 131, 110560 (2019).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  3. Slovic, P., Finucane, M. L., Peters, E. & MacGregor, D. G. Risk Anal. 24, 311–322 (2004).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  4. Entine, J. Scared to Death: How Chemophobia Threatens Public Health (American Council on Science and Health, 2011).

  5. Rozin, P., Fischler, C. & Shields-Argeles, C. Appetite 59, 448–455 (2012).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  6. Roman, S., Sanchez-Siles, L. M. & Siegrist, M. Trends Food Sci. Technol. 67, 44–57 (2017).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  7. Bearth, A., Miesler, L. & Siegrist, M. Risk Anal. 37, 647–660 (2017).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  8. Rozin, P. Psychol. Sci. 16, 652–658 (2005).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  9. Kraus, N., Malmfors, T. & Slovic, P. Risk Anal. 12, 215–232 (1992).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  10. Siegrist, M. Risk Anal. https://doi.org/10.1111/risa.13325 (2019).

  11. Public Attitudes to Chemistry: Research Report (RSC, 2015).

  12. Saleh, R., Bearth, A. & Siegrist, M. Risk Anal. https://doi.org/10.1111/risa.13375 (2019).

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Consumer Behaviour, Institute for Environmental Decisions, ETH Zurich, Zurich, Switzerland

    Michael Siegrist & Angela Bearth

Authors
  1. Michael Siegrist
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. Angela Bearth
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Contributions

The manuscript was jointly prepared by M.S. and A.B.

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Michael Siegrist.

Rights and permissions

Reprints and Permissions

About this article

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this article

Siegrist, M., Bearth, A. Chemophobia in Europe and reasons for biased risk perceptions. Nat. Chem. 11, 1071–1072 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41557-019-0377-8

Download citation

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41557-019-0377-8

This article is cited by

Search

Advanced search

Quick links

Nature Briefing

Sign up for the Nature Briefing newsletter — what matters in science, free to your inbox daily.

Get the most important science stories of the day, free in your inbox. Sign up for Nature Briefing