Gender, Race, and Perception of Environmental Health Risks

Abstract

This paper reports the results of a national survey in which perceptions of environmental health risks were measured for 1275 white and 217 nonwhite persons. The results showed that white women perceived risks to be much higher than did white men, a result that is consistent with previous studies. However, this gender difference was not true of nonwhite women and men, whose perceptions of risk were quite similar. Most striking was the finding that white males tended to differ from everyone else in their attitudes and perceptions-on average, they perceived risks as much smaller and much more acceptable than did other people. These results suggest that sociopolitical factors such as power, status, alienation, and trust are strong determiners of people's perception and acceptance of risks.

Identification of Recycled Water with an Empirically Derived Symbol Increases Its Probability of Use

“…In comparison with many other environmentally friendly behaviors (for example, recycling paper or purchasing dolphin-safe tuna) the commercial agricultural use of recycled water and the personal use of consumer goods or facilities irrigated with recycled water entail more substantial economic and health risks (31). In comparison to men, women have been frequently observed to be more averse to such risks (32,33); thus the present finding might reflect more general gender differences in risk aversion.…”

The New Incinerator in Parma and the News from Newspapers - The Importance of Communication in Terms of "Environment and Health"

“…(framework of human interest). The coders had to answer yes (1) or no (0) for each question. The articles have been classified in a specific topic area if the highest score were corresponding to the sum of the same topic frameworks (table 1).…”

“…[1,2] Moreover, the perceptions and social representations of risks are historically dependent: any period can be characterized by the inputs that identify specific dangers, thus exasperating fears. [3] The media have a key role in characterizing the attitude towards a specific risk.…”

Percepção dos perigos ambientais urbanos e os efeitos de lugar na relação população-ambiente

“…Existem algumas hipóteses que tentam explicar as diferenças na percepção do risco entre homens e mulheres, tais como condições biológicas, experiência de algum risco e diferenças sociais (FLyNN et al 1994). Entre as causas sociais, pesquisas qualitativas têm mostrado que a atenção das mulheres com a casa e a família se reflete em sua percepção dos riscos, tornando-as preocupadas com ameaças à sua família e a outras pessoas com quem tenham relações estreitas, bem como com relação à sua casa, como mostram Jakobsen e karlsson (apud GUSTAFSON, 1998).…”

“…Algumas pesquisas revelam que os homens tendem a manifestar níveis mais baixos de preocupação quando questionados sobre perigos ambientais. Por se preocuparem menos, sua atenção e consequentemente sua percepção dos riscos também são menores do que as das mulheres (FLyNN et al, 1994;RIECHARD et al, 1998;FINUCANE et al, 2000;HENwOOD, 2008).…”