Do the people exposed to a technological risk always want more information about it? Some observations on cases of rejection

There exist situations in which people who perceive themselves exposed to a technological risk feel uninformed but, at the same time, refuse to absorb new information about the said risk. With the objective of understanding this paradoxical situation, in this text, we are going to compare some empirical data obtained in two different studies carried out in Spain about the perception of technological risks, the first one, very specific and visible, related to petrochemical plants; and the second one, more abstract and opaque, related to nuclear fusion. According to the results some of the reasons that could explain this situation can be found in the structure of the social and institutional context in which people experience and perceive risks; a context in which acknowledging new information implies assuming new responsibilities on factors out of people's control.