Assessing Risk: A Public Analysis of the Medfly Eradication Program

The Mediterranean Fruit Fly eradication program provided an opportunity to assess public attitudes toward technological risks. This is a case study of 126 residents from a metropolitan area who, during the 1981–82 Mediterranean Fruitfly Crisis, were undergoing exposure to aerial spraying with a pesticide. While only one-third of the subjects expressed fear of danger to their health and to the environment, 94 percent undertook one or more major behavioral precautions. Individual differences in risk perception were related to perceived benefits of the program, political ideology, faith in experts, and media exposure. Individual differences in risk acceptability varied primarily as a function of risk perception. Federal, state, and business agencies were perceived as influential in decision making, with individual citizens having little opportunity for input.