OPSS study on risk perception
Understanding the Psychological Factors Underpinning Risk Perceptions of Consumer Products
The UK’s Office for Product Safety and Standards (OPSS) has recently conducted a study into how consumers perceive risk in relation to consumer and cosmetic products. A key finding is that consumers view certain cosmetic categories as higher risk than others.
Which cosmetics are perceived as risky?
The study assessed two criteria to categorise the level of risk: benefits and dread.
Benefits include how familiar consumers are with the product, how useful they find it, and how often they use it.
Dread reflects the psychological and emotional risk associated with the product, for example concerns about injury, harm, and general worry.
Using these criteria, cosmetics were categorised as below: (see image below for a visual representation):
High Dread, High Benefit:
Products seen as beneficial but risky (e.g., aerosol antiperspirants).High Dread, Low Benefit:
Products perceived as dangerous and offering little benefit (e.g., skin-lightening creams).Low Dread, High Benefit:
Products that are useful and carry low perceived risk (e.g., toothpaste).Low Dread, Low Benefit:
Products with minimal perceived risk and offer little benefit (e.g., hair gel).
The study found that 88% of the differences in how the public perceives the risk of personal care products can be attributed to benefits and dread, but also responsibility.
In the study, responsibility refers to the entity the consumers believe responsible to ensure product safety, including manufacturers, regulators, and the consumers themselves.
For cosmetics, it was found that consumers feel more confident if they believe that manufacturers or regulators are responsible for the product. On the other hand, consumers will see products being more at risk if they can’t attribute a responsible entity for product safety.
Why do different consumers have different perceptions?
Several individual factors influence how different people perceive risks. These include demographics, cultural worldviews and consumer’s background and attitude toward risk.
Understanding consumers’ risk tolerance for cosmetics
The study shows that consumers’ decision to buy cosmetics can depend on their willingness to take risks. In general, when a product is perceived as beneficial (aerosol deodorant), consumers might still buy it even if they consider this product as a high risk product. However, some consumers with low risk tendencies may still decide not to buy the product even if its benefits are recognised. Consumers also exhibit a greater tendency to communicate product-related risks to others, depending on how dreaded or beneficial the products are.
The study also noticed that additional contextual factors are affecting risk perception:
Where the product is purchased
For instance higher risk is perceived for online purchase compared to brick and mortar purchase. This is mainly because consumers are not able to physically examine the product, ask questions, get immediate assistance in case of issues, and face difficulties in returning non-compliant or unsafe products.
Cause of harm
For instance higher risk is perceived when the risk comes from non-compliance with safety standards and products not meeting regulatory requirements, rather than improper use of the cosmetic product by the user.
Conclusions of the study
The study emphasises that both consumer personal characteristics (e.g. personality, experiences, and knowledge) and external factors (e.g. the environment or social influences) play a role in risk assessment.
This study provides interesting information of the category of cosmetics that are generally considered as higher risk by consumers. The risk perception however will vary based on the individuals and point of sale.
From a brand perspective the following takeaway from the study may be interesting to assess how consumers will perceive the risk level of the product:
Assessing whether the product is considered as beneficial by the target consumer.
Collecting data on the target consumer personal characteristics (age, background, trends, risk tendency…) and how those data affect the consumer risk tendency.
Considering the impact of the point of sale (online only, in stores, access to sales representatives, endorsement…)
Monitoring any safety alert being relayed by the media or social media
The findings of this study can also serve as a starting point to understand how regulatory policies and communication strategies can be used in the future.
The full report can be found here: psychological-factors-underpinning-risk-perceptions-of-consumer-products.pdf
Sayali Garud