It is generally believed that while in some cases government should in

It is generally believed that while in some cases
government should intervene to protect people from
risk—by imposing air safety standards, for example—
in other cases, such as mountain climbing, the onus
(5) should be on the individual to protect himself or
herself. In the eyes of the public at large, the demarcation
between the two kinds of cases has mainly to do with
whether the risk in question is incurred voluntarily.
This distinction between voluntary and involuntary
(10) risk may in fact be the chief difference between lay
and expert judgments about risk. Policy experts tend
to focus on aggregate lives at stake; laypeople care a
great deal whether a risk is undertaken voluntarily.
However, judgments about whether a risk is
(15) “involuntary” often stem from confusion and selective
attention, and the real reason for such judgments
frequently lies in an antecedent judgment of some
other kind. They are thus of little utility in guiding
policy decisions.

(20) First, it is not easy to determine when a risk is
voluntarily incurred. Although voluntariness may be
entirely absent in the case of an unforeseeable
collision with an asteroid, with most environmental,
occupational, and other social risks, it is not an all-or
(25) nothing matter, but rather one of degree. Risks
incurred by airline passengers are typically thought to be
involuntary, since passengers have no control over
whether a plane is going to crash. But they can choose
airlines on the basis of safety records or choose not to
(30) fly. In characterizing the risks as involuntary, people
focus on a small part of a complex interaction, not the
decision to fly, but the accident when it occurs.

Second, people often characterize risks as
“voluntary” when they do not approve of the purpose
(35) for which people run the risks. It is unlikely that
people would want to pour enormous taxpayer
resources into lowering the risks associated with
skydiving, even if the ratio of dollars spent to lives
saved were quite good. By contrast, people would
(40) probably not object to spending enormous resources
on improving the safety of firefighters, even though
the decision to become a firefighter is voluntary. In
short, there is no special magic in notions like
“voluntary” and “involuntary.” Therefore, regulatory
(45) policy should be guided by a better understanding of
the factors that underlie judgments about voluntariness.

In general, the government should attempt to save
as many lives as it can, subject to the limited public
and private resources devoted to risk reduction.
(50) Departures from this principle should be justified not
by invoking the allegedly voluntary or involuntary
nature of a particular risk, but rather by identifying
the more specific considerations for which notions of
voluntariness serve as proxies.

1. Which one of the following most accurately expresses the main point of the passage?

(A) In general, whether people characterize a risk as voluntary or involuntary depends on whether they approve of the purpose for which the risk is taken.
(B) Decisions about government intervention to protect people from risks should be based primarily on how many lives can be saved rather than on whether the risks are considered voluntary.
(C) Though laypeople may object, experts should be the ones to determine whether the risk incurred in a particular action is voluntary or involuntary.
(D) Public-policy decisions related to the protection of society against risk are difficult to make because of the difficulty of distinguishing risks incurred voluntarily from those incurred involuntarily.
(E) People who make judgments about the voluntary or involuntary character of a risk are usually unaware of the complicated motivations that lead people to take risks.


2. The passage indicates that which one of the following is usually a significant factor in laypeople’s willingness to support public funding for specific risk reduction measures?

(A) an expectation about the ratio of dollars spent to lives saved
(B) deference to expert judgments concerning whether the government should intervene
(C) a belief as to whether the risk is incurred voluntarily or involuntarily
(D) a judgment as to whether the risk puts a great number of lives at stake
(E) a consideration of the total resources available for risk reduction.


3. According to the passage, which one of the following do laypeople generally consider to involve risk that is not freely assumed?

(A) traveling in outer space
(B) participating in skydiving
(C) serving as a firefighter
(D) traveling in airplanes
(E) climbing mountains


4. It can be inferred from the passage that the author would be most likely to agree with which one of the following statements?

(A) People should generally not be protected against the risks incurred through activities, such as skydiving, that are dangerous and serve no socially useful purpose.
(B) The fact that plane crash victims chose to fly would usually be deemed by policy experts to be largely irrelevant to decisions about the government’s role in regulating air safety.
(C) Both the probability of occurrence and the probability of resulting death or injury are higher for plane crashes than for any other kind of risk incurred by airline passengers.
(D) For public-policy purposes, a risk should be deemed voluntarily incurred if people are not subject to that risk unless they make a particular choice.
(E) The main category of risk that is usually incurred completely involuntarily is the risk of natural disaster.


5. The author’s use of the phrase “no special magic” (line 43) is most likely meant primarily to convey that notions like “voluntary” and “involuntary”

(A) do not exhaustively characterize the risks that people commonly face
(B) have been used to intentionally conceal the factors motivating government efforts to protect people from risks
(C) have no meaning beyond their literal, dictionary definitions
(D) are mistakenly believed to be characteristics that inform people’s understanding of the consequences of risk
(E) provide a flawed mechanism for making public policy decisions relating to risk reduction


6. The passage most strongly supports the inference that the author believes which one of the following?

(A) Whenever an activity involves the risk of loss of human life, the government should intervene to reduce the degree of risk incurred.
(B) Some environmental risks are voluntary to a greater degree than others are.
(C) Policy experts are more likely than laypeople to form an accurate judgment about the voluntariness or involuntariness of an activity.
(D) The government should increase the quantity of resources devoted to protecting people from risk.
(E) Government policies intended to reduce risk are not justified unless they comport with most people’s beliefs


7. Which one of the following most accurately describes the author’s attitude in the passage?

(A) chagrin at the rampant misunderstanding of the relative risks associated with various activities
(B) concern that policy guided mainly by laypeople’s emphasis on the voluntariness of risk would lead to excessive government regulation
(C) skepticism about the reliability of laypeople’s intuitions as a general guide to deciding government risk-management policy
(D) conviction that the sole criterion that can justify government intervention to reduce risk is the saving of human lives
(E) eagerness to persuade the reader that policy experts’ analysis of risk is distorted by subtle biases