Influence of information about specific absorption rate (SAR) upon customers' purchase decisions and safety evaluation of mobile phones
✍ Scribed by Peter M. Wiedemann; Holger Schütz; Martin Clauberg
- Publisher
- John Wiley and Sons
- Year
- 2008
- Tongue
- English
- Weight
- 216 KB
- Volume
- 29
- Category
- Article
- ISSN
- 0197-8462
No coin nor oath required. For personal study only.
✦ Synopsis
Abstract
This study investigated whether the SAR value is a purchase‐relevant characteristic of mobile phones for laypersons and what effect the disclosure of a precautionary SAR value has on laypersons' risk perception. The study consisted of two parts: Study part 1 used a conjoint analysis design to explore the relevance of the SAR value and other features of mobile phones for an intended buying decision. Study part 2 used an experimental, repeated measures design to examine the effect of the magnitude of SAR values and the disclosure of a precautionary SAR value on risk perception. In addition, the study included an analysis of prior concerns of the study participants with regard to mobile phone risks. Part 1 indicates that the SAR value has a high relevance for laypersons' purchase intentions. In the experimental purchase setting it ranks even before price and equipment features. The results of study part 2 show that providing information of a precautionary limit value does not influence risk perception. This result suggests that laypersons' underlying subjective “safety model” for mobile phones resembles more a “margin of safety” concept than a threshold concept. The latter observation holds true no matter how concerned the participants are. Bioelectromagnetics 29:133–144, 2008. © 2007 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.