Societal Risk Perception in Present Day Russia

Abstract

The study analyzed new information regarding the way in which present day Russians (living in Moscow or Tula) perceive societal risks. The main concerns of Russians in year 2003 were essentially the same ones that were identified in previous studies conducted on Western samples: violence, sex, and addiction-type hazards received the highest risk ratings. Women's mean risk judgments were systematically higher than men's mean judgments, and older participants' mean judgments were higher than younger participants' mean judgments regarding domestic hazards. Technically trained people perceived higher societal risk than people with training in the humanities, but the difference between people with technical training and people trained in the humanities was more accentuated among younger people than among the elderly. Also, men living in Tula perceived themselves as less exposed to risks of violence than women living in Tula and both men and women living in Moscow.

Societal Risk Perception in Arab Countries: The Case of Kuwait

“…They were consistent with the findings of Sjöberg et al (1996) and Rodionova et al (2008) showing changes in risk perception in Bulgaria, Romania, and Russia in the 1990s (i.e ., after these countries' populations had access to Western media). In addition, they were also consistent with O' Guinn and Shrum's (1997) findings from a completely different setting.…”

Perceptions of Addictions as Societal Problems in Canada, Sweden, Finland and St. Petersburg, Russia

“…In fact, alcohol is the most common cause of premature death among working age men and women in Finland [16] . Although alcohol-related male mortality is even higher in Russia [21] , alcohol was not one of their topmost societal concerns [see also 22 ]. This could be a cultural-political reaction to the Gorbachev era anti-alcohol campaign, which blocked serious discussion about alcohol problems in Russia for a long time.…”

Societal Risk Perception: A 19-Countries Comparison

“…This finding is consistent with what is known about the media information policy in these countries. The persons living in Burkina Faso (Koné & Mullet, 1994), in Macao (Neto & Mullet, 2001), and a large majority of Russians (Rodionova et al, 2007) have unrestricted access to international news provided by newspapers, radio, and TV programmes. In fact, the eight countries forming part of the Western cluster or of the sixth cluster share the same information pool.…”

“…Macao seems to be in a particular political and economical situation, mainly dominated by gambling. In present day Russian society, unemployment, poverty and violence are common ingredients of everyday life (Rodionova et al, 2007). These adverse economic, societal or political conditions may explain why these countries showed a partly specific profile of risk perception.…”

“…These studies have shown that risk ratings may substantially vary from one country to another. For example, the level of risk associated with the item "Nuclear Power" was rated 31 (out of 100; that is, not very risky) in a Hungarian sample (Englander, Farago, Slovic & Fischhoff, 1986), 34 in a Swedish sample (Nyland, 1993), 47 in a Norwegian sample (Teigen, Brun & Slovic, 1988), an Australian sample (Finucane & Maybery, 1996), and a Finnish sample (Mullet, Lazreg, Candela & Neto, 2005), 49 in a Polish sample (Goszcynska, Tyszka & Slovic, 1991), 62 in an Italian sample , 66 in a Macanese sample (Neto & Mullet, 2001) and a Brazilian sample (Nyland, 1993), 67 in a Portuguese sample (Neto & Mullet, 2000), 68 in a Hong Kongese sample (Keown, 1989), 69 in a French sample (Karpowicz-Lazreg & Mullet, 1993) and a Russian sample (Rodionova, Vinsonneau, Rivière & Mullet, 2007), 72 in a US sample (Slovic, Fischhoff & Lichtenstein, 1985) and a Korean sample (Cha, 2000), 78 in a Burkina Faso sample (Koné & Mullet, 1994), 79 in an Egyptian sample (Ahmed, Macri & Mullet, 2006) and a Kuwaiti sample (Ahmed & Mullet, 2007), 84 in a Spanish sample (Muñoz Sastre, Gatelier, Portell, Neto & Mullet, 2006), and 89 in a Greek sample (Macri & Mullet, 2007).…”