Geoboo Song

Bureaucratic Accountability and Disaster Response: Why Did the Korea Coast Guard Fail in Its Rescue Mission During the Sewol Ferry Accident?: Sewol Ferry Accident

The Sewol ferry accident, occurring in the ocean in South Korea on April 16, 2014, resulted in the loss of 304 lives. Some argue that one of the primary reasons for such an excessive death toll was because the post‐disaster rescue operations led by the Korea Coast Guard (KCG) were neither timely nor efficient and effective. In this study, we attempt to understand whether there was any systemic cause behind such an unsuccessful disaster response on the part of the KCG. In doing so, we analyze the KCGs aptitudes, attitudes, and behaviors vis‐à‐vis its rescue operations in the broader context of Sewol ferry disaster management, while utilizing the classic theories of bureaucratic accountability. We conclude this research by arguing that the KCG was more concerned about hierarchical, political, and legal accountability than professional accountability in the midst of the accident, and discuss theoretical and practical ramifications of our findings.

Cultural Values, Trust, and Benefit-Risk Perceptions of Hydraulic Fracturing: A Comparative Analysis of Policy Elites and the General Public

Hydraulic fracturing (“fracking�?) has recently become a very intensely debated process for extracting oil and gas. Supporters argue that fracking provides positive economic benefits and energy security and offers a decreased reliance on coal-based electricity generation. Detractors claim that the fracking process may harm the environment as well as place a strain on local communities that experience new fracking operations. This study utilizes a recently conducted survey distributed to a sample of policy elites and the general public in Arkansas and Oregon to examine the role of cultural value predispositions and trust in shaping the perceptions of risks and benefits associated with fracking. Findings indicate that cultural values influence both trust and benefit-risk perceptions of fracking for both policy elites and the general public. While the overall pattern of relationships is similar, however, trust plays a larger role in the formulation of attitudes for policy elites than for the general public. We discuss the implications of the disparate role of trust between policy elites and the general public in the context of the policy-making process.

Understanding Parents’ Child Vaccination Behaviors in the United States

Acknowledging the growing public health concern caused by the deadly reemergence of vaccine-preventable infectious diseases in the United States, this research focuses on how we can better understand American parents’ child vaccination behaviors. The results of an empirical analysis using original data from a recent national survey of American parents with at least one child under age 18 (who had a total of 718 adult and minor children) show that parents’ perceptions regarding vaccine benefits, risks, and utility in general, which are derived from their more fundamental philosophical dispositions, which shape their conception of ideally structured social relations, directly translate into their vaccination behavior. The findings also suggest that non-attitudinal factors, including whether a parent has health insurance coverage for his or her child, influence such behavioral decisions as well. For a more comprehensive understanding of the aforementioned attitude-behavior relationship, systematic investigations incorporating multi-level factors, including demographic characteristics, cultural orientations, perceptions of disease prevalence, vaccine-related knowledge, and trust of the information provided by healthcare professionals and government, are conducted and its theoretical and practical implications are discussed.

Cultural predispositions, specific affective feelings, and benefit–risk perceptions: explicating local policy elites’ perceived utility of high voltage power line installations

Abstract Policy controversies concerning the prioritized expansion of the National Energy Grid in the U.S. have drawn our attention to examine the variations of benefit–risk perceptions associated with High Voltage Power Line (HVPL) installation among policy elites, a critical conceptual segment of political actors constituting the U.S. energy policy subsystem. From early psychometric studies to more recent explorations of the emotional aspects of risk appraisal, specifying the role of affective feelings in understanding risk judgment has been a subject of much previous research. This paper seeks to advance such an affect-driven approach in an attempt to account for social psychology-based factors by systemically investigating how specific emotions and personally held intrinsic values and beliefs jointly influence individual-level perceptions of HVPL benefits and risks, relying on recent original survey data containing individual responses from 420 anonymous community leaders and key local policy-makers in the state of Arkansas. Building upon previous research rooted in the dual process model of risk judgment and appraisal tendency framework, a particular emphasis is given to identifying the triadic relationship between culturally biased value predispositions, specific emotional dimensions of affect heuristics, and perceptions pertaining to various aspects of HVPL risks and benefits. Through the implementation of the causal mediation analysis, we found that the effect of cultural value predispositions (i.e. egalitarianism, individualism, hierarchism, and fatalism) on perceived benefits and risks associated with HPVL installation among policy elites is partially mediated by specific affective feelings (i.e. fear, anger, happiness, and excitement) in very distinct ways. We conclude this paper by suggesting that a more robust understanding of the cognitive mechanism of benefit–risk perceptions, particularly those of individuals with more opportunities and resources to shape related policies, promises valuable insight for the development of more effective risk communications and better policy-making practices.