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Thanks to data from the French Environmental Barometer EDF-R&D 2004 (national representative sample of French aged over 15), this paper investigated lay risk perceptions related to exposure to electromagnetic fields (from an electric power-line, a TV, a cellular phone or micro-wave oven). Answers to an opened-ended question suggested that many people worry about such exposure: it may interfere with natural electricity circulating in the human body, disturb the nervous system and cause cancer. These answers revealed a conception of human body, health and disease, and participants referred to various kinds of arguments, from expert knowledge to personal intuition. Statistical analyses showed that risk perceptions related to these four devices were strongly correlated with each other and shared common predictors. These results suggest that these risk perceptions are built within the same perceptive frame. One should not consider them as "false beliefs": they are based on consistent conceptions of the body, health and disease, they are fuelled by the contemporary levelling of knowledge, and they reflect the difficulties experienced by many people living in a changing world. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Using the data from the French Environment Barometer EDF-R&D 2004 (national representative sample of French citizens aged over 15) and surveys by ADEME between 2000 and 2005, the paper investigates lay perceptions of the causes and consequences of the greenhouse effect, which may be considered as archetypal of contemporary environmental risks. Beyond lay lack of knowledge, the greenhouse effect gives rise to coherent and meaningful cognitions, including causal explanations, shaped by the pre-existing cognitive framework. This cognitive work, based on analogic rather than scientific thought, strings together the greenhouse effect, ozone depletion, air pollution and even nuclear power. The cognitive process is also fed by the individuals' general conceptions of Nature and of the rights and duties of humankind towards Nature. People are not greatly worried about the unseen and controversial consequences of the greenhouse effect: such worry could be one of those "elite fears" mentioned by Beck. Finally, while the efficiency of public policies to counter the greenhouse effect requires extensive societal involvement, low confidence towards both political and scientific authorities may prevent the population from becoming aware of the environmental stakes tied to the greenhouse effect. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]