BBC News (June 19, 2019) Women not aware enough of breast cancer link to alcohol. BBC News. Available at https://www.bbc.com/news/health-48677953 (Accessed June 19, 2019).

Consumption of alcohol is a risk factor for developing breast cancer. Women who drink 2 units of alcohol a day increase their risk of developing breast cancer from 8% to 11%. Because I am a woman with a family history of breast cancer but I only drink minimal amounts of alcohol at social events, my perceived susceptibility of developing breast cancer is still only based on my family history. However, my perceived severity of breast cancer is high because I could get very sick and/or die from it. This information about alcohol increasing the risk of breast cancer affects my thoughts by making me think I should continue to drink minimal amounts of alcohol, as it is a risk factor I can control. I did not have any background knowledge that drinking alcohol increased the risk of breast cancer. Comparing my knowledge that drinking alcohol may affect heart health and can affect liver health helped me realize that it can affect other parts of the body as well. This led me to understand that it increases the risk of breast cancer. I interpreted the number of units of alcohol that increases the risk of breast cancer (2) as far lower than the recommended alcohol limits for men and women per day (14). Slovic’s work described how if a risk is familiar one might not think of it as risky as an unknown risk. Slovic’s work does not apply to my own perceptions of the risks of breast cancer. Even though drinking alcohol is a familiar risk like driving a car as opposed to an unknown risk like nuclear weapons and genetically modified food I took this into account in my perceptions. Although 14 units of alcohol is the recommended limit to drink a day and a familiar risk I perceived that to lower my risk for breast cancer I would need to drink a much lower amount, less than 2 units of alcohol a day.