Risk compensation postulates that everyone has a "risk thermostat" and that safety measures that do not affect the setting of the thermostat will be circumvented by behaviour that re-establishes the level of risk with which people were originally comfortable. It explains why, for example, motorists drive faster after a bend in the road is straightened. Cultural theory explains risk-taking behaviour by the operation of cultural filters. It postulates that behaviour is governed by the probable costs and benefits of alternative courses of action which are perceived through filters formed from all the previous incidents and associations in the risk-taker's life.; "Risk" should be of interest to many readers throughout the social sciences and in the world of industry, business, engineering, finance and public administration, since it deals with a fundamental part of human behaviour that has enormous financial and economic implications.

About the Author

John Adams is an Emeritus Professor in the Geography Department at University College London, and theorist on risk compensation.

Reviews

"Extremely counterintuitive...stimulating and rewarding." Nature

"This book is to make one pause and take stock. He (the author) has a wonderfully irreverant style, dissecting phony argument and phoney statistics with an enviable ease, humour and self-deprecation." Transactions of the IBG

"Having read it, none of us should ever again look at transport issues in the same way...this is why his (the author's) book deserves to be read, not just by geographers but by the whole community of transport planners and policy makers." Journal of Transport Geography

Book Information
ISBN 9781857280685
Author John Adams
Format Paperback
Page Count 240
Imprint Routledge
Publisher Taylor & Francis Ltd
Weight(grams) 385g