To cite this article:

Guedez, A. G. (2016). Societal risk perception by laypersons living in Venezuela. A Latin countries comparison. Universitas Psychologica, 15 (4). http://dx.doi.org/10.11144/Javeriana.upsy15-3.srpl

Introduction

Earlier studies in societal risk perception

The aim of this study was to present some recent data on risk perception in Venezuela and compare it to an international database that already exists: four Latin countries namely Spain, France, Brazil, and Portugal (see Chauvin, Macri & Mullet, 2007).

Discrepancies and even conflicts can happen between people when assessing the societal risk of facts or things, in other words, they can differ when assessing which things are more dangerous and which ones are less, given to their different beliefs (Slovic, 1987).

Societal risk perception studies have been realized in multiples countries in Africa (Ahmed, Macri & Mullet, 2006; Koné & Mullet, 1994), Asia (Neto & Mullet, 2001), in Europe (Bouyer, Bagdassarian, Chaabane & Mullet, 2001; Chauvin, Hermand & Mullet, 2007; Muñoz Sastres, Gatelier, Portell, Neto & Mullet, 2006; Neto and Mullet, 2000), Latin America (e.g., Nyland, 1993), and in Oceania (Finucane & Maybery, 1996; Rohrmann, 1994). In these studies, participants rated the overall severity of hazards (for example: weapons, drugs, ways of transportation, pesticides) on scales ranging from 0 (not at all risky) to 100 (extremely risky). Multiple cross-country comparisons have been possible given that most of these studies used questionnaires that were very alike the one used by Slovic, Fischhoff and Lichtenstein (1985) (see Chauvin, Hermand & Mullet, 2007).

Previous studies have shown that risk ratings can vary a lot from one country to another. For example, the risk evaluation for the item "Nuclear Power" was rated with 31 out of 100 which means not a very high risk in a Hungarian sample, 62 in an Italian sample and with an 89 in a Greek sample (see Chauvin, Macri & Mullet, 2007). These studies also have shown that correlations between risk ratings could also be different between countries (Chauvin, Hermand & Mullet, 2007).

Finally, no study exploring the societal risk perception by laypersons in Venezuela has been done before. This study was aimed to find the proximity regarding the societal risk perception between Venezuela and four other Latin countries, namely: France, Spain, Brazil, and Portugal.

The Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela

The Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela is in the northern coast of South America. It is a federal presidential republic. Caracas is its capital. Its official language is Spanish. Venezuelans daily lives are affected given the financial crisis that suffers the country, the bad management, the repeated devaluations, and the corruption. Venezuela has one of the highest criminality levels in the world and its economy is very unstable (Transparency International, 2012).

Regarding the risk perception in Venezuela, today freedom of speech is not completely guaranteed in the country. For example, a broadcasting station was closed in 2007, given that the government did not agree with the content of transmissions considered as opposing their political ideals.

In Venezuela, criminal and violent events are not always covered by the media. The police have the right to stop the manifestations (even if it is a pacific one), and frequently they used tear gas. As a result, items like national defense, police work, riot gas, crime and handguns should receive a very high rating.

Method

Participants

The sample consisted of 100 adults living in Venezuela (42 males and 58 females), aged 17-64 years (M = 38.19; SD = 13.36). 5 participants were 17 to 20 years old, 35 were 21 to 30 years old, 15 were 31 to 40 years old, 22 were 41 to 50 years old, 17 were 51 to 60 years old, and 6 were older than 60 years old. Three participants had a primary educational level, 24 received a high school degree, 65 had a college degree, and 8 had a graduate degree. As we were aware of the risks associated with snowball sampling, two snowballs were constituted, namely: 46% were recruited in Caracas and 54% in Maracaibo. All participants were autochthonous.

Material

The material consisted of a list of 91 substances, activities, and technologies adapted from the study of Slovic et al. (1985), which had been previously used by Neto and Mullet (2000) on a Portuguese sample. A scale rating from 0 to 100 graduated in tens appeared opposite to each item. The decision to use the list used by Slovic et al. (1985) was primarily due to the need to compare our findings with previously established data. As the first author’s mother tongue was Spanish and her father’s first language was Portuguese, she was perfectly fluent in both languages, which made her capable of translating the items (from Portuguese to Spanish). In addition, three people having a superior education degree (graduate) and deep grammatical knowledge reviewed the scale before its administration, so any possible translation ambiguity could be detected on time.

Procedure

As in Slovic et al. (1985), participants were asked to rate the degree of risk for each item by placing an X in the appropriated space on a 0 to 100 points rating scale. As in the Slovic et al. (1985) study, subjects were told to rate only the risk in Venezuela. The language used was Spanish. The administering took place from February to April 2012.

Results

Structuring the differences / Constituting a Similarity Matrix

The present study aimed to structure the differences in risk perception between a Venezuelan sample and a Latin countries data: Portugal (Neto and Mullet, 2000); Brasil (Nyland, 1993); Spain (Muñoz Sastre et al., 2006) and France (Chauvin, Hermand & Mullet, 2007) using cluster analysis. The total number of hazards are listed in Table 1. As a result, a 91 x 5 data matrix was created (91 risk items x 5 Latin-American countries that were in the database). Ninety-one hazards were maintained, since they were answered in all of the Latin countries present in the current study. Columns 2 and 3 show the mean ratings and the standard deviation computed over the Venezuelan sample for each hazard.

Two clusters solution

A cluster analysis was computed on the matrix. The results are shown in Figure 1 a main cluster composed of Venezuela and Portugal was found. Brazil was situated closer to the Venezuelan and Portugal cluster. Another cluster formed by France and Spain was also established and was situated further away from the Venezuelan and Portugal cluster. It can be appreciated in Figure 1.

Venezuela and Portugal formed a cluster that was called the Economically and Socially Challenging group (ESC). The mean rating value observed on the set of common 91 hazards was about 46 (see Table 2). This value was slightly under the middle score of the scale.

Portugal and Venezuela are geographically far away, but they are culturally closer given their migration connexions; in fact, in the 20th century, Portugal begun to be part of the migratory movements from Europe to the American Continent. The District of Funchal (Portugal’s Autonomous Region of Madeira) presented an important amount of citizen departures, especially in the 1950s. The principal destination was Venezuela; in other words, 70% of the people that emigrated from Funchal between 1965 and 1978 went to Venezuela (Alves, 2003; Marques, 2008). However, between 2004 and 2005 there was an important increase of Venezuelan citizens in the Madeira Island. This was a group of former emigrants that returned to their birth land and also a group of Portuguese descendents that were immigrating to the island given the family connexions (Fonseca, 2007).

Venezuela actually lives a very unstable economical and social situation. Several broadcasting stations have been closed and the local media is highly controlled. Also, Venezuela is a very violent country, where violent assaults and kidnappings happen every day. Consequently, Venezuelan participants showed that staying in the country was considered more dangerous than leaving. That is why the item Emigration had the lowest rate (16) of the whole scale. Crime had the highest rating on the scale with 87.

The transmission of information policy in Portugal includes broadcasting the accidents that happens inside and outside the country. Nevertheless, the main focus of television are the accidents that happens inside the country (Kpanake, Chauvin, Macri & Mullet, 2008). It is true that Portugal had been living an economical crisis that is affecting the employment situation inside the country. It will be interesting to research in future studies how unemployment can affect the risk perception or, in other words, if it can motivate people to emigrate seeing the risks of foreign countries as less dangerous than the risks that are happening inside the current country. Swimming was the item with the lowest rating (14) for this country, and the highest rating on the scale was of 82 for heroine .

Finally, Brazil is geographically closer to Venezuela. Both countries are in South America and they are geographically neighbours. Even though they do not share the same language, they share a social reality which includes a high rate of crime and violence.

The Brazilian media centers mostly their attention on the accidents that happen inside the country (Nayland, 1993). The fact that Brazil was situated closer to this cluster was not a surprise, given the fact that Brazil and Portugal share the same language and both countries had a cultural bond given their history during the colonization period, and Brazil is physically close to Venezuela. Fluorescent lights had the lowest (10) rating and nuclear weapons had the highest (91). Despite these common points, the linear correlation between Brazil and the ESC group was about 0.70 (p < 0.05) (see Table 3) which means that the ESC group and Brazil seem to share similar main concerns, even though not to the same extent.

Spain and France formed the second cluster that was called the Western Europe group (WE). These two countries are geographically and culturally close. Their mean rating value for the common set of 91 hazards was about 47 (see Table 2), which is only one point higher than the ESC group. In these countries accidents occurring inside and outside the country have always been reported (Kpanake et al., 2008). The linear correlation between this cluster and the ESC group was about 0.87 (p < 0.05) (see Table 3) which means that this cluster and the ESC one essentially differ in the overall level of perceived risk, and practically not in the ranking of hazards. This similitude between the countries seems reasonable given that these four countries share a common western cultural way of life, and Portugal (a Western European country) is present in the ESC group, which can contribute to the high linear correlation (r = 0.87, p < 0.05) between these two clusters.

For both countries the lowest rating was given to the item jogging (Spain 10; France 12), and the highest rating was given to the item nuclear weapons (Spain 97; France 96).

Discussion

The principal aim of this study was to explore the societal risk perception by laypersons in Venezuela and to find their proximity, regarding this issue, from other four Latin countries, namely: France, Spain, Brazil, and Portugal.

Venezuela formed a cluster with Portugal, which was surprising given their geographical distance, but since they are countries that have been struggling economically for the past decades, both are potent developing countries, and currently are fighting with a high level of unemployment. Consequently, a lot of young people are emigrating from these countries hoping to find a better way of life.

In the early 1990s the Venezuelan emigration started and was characterized mostly by job searching, studying, or living outside the country. The main reasons to emigrate for the population are: personal development (academically and in the job field); searching for safety and social stability; getting away from violence and social conflicts that currently predominate in the country; increasing their income. Thus, the main reasons are from a socioeconomic order (Mateo & Ledezma, 2006). This easily explains why the Venezuelan sample rated crime with the highest score and emigration with the lowest.

Given that the media inside the country is not completely free, it seems congruent with the idea of Heath (1984) which says that the more the media reports crimes in other countries (thus reports less of what is happening in inside the country) the safer readers will feel in their own enviroment. Furthermore, Brazil was closer to the ESC group, and Spain and France formed another cluster which was situated further away from the ESC group. This seems reasonable given that Brazil shares a common history (colonization, traditions, language) with Portugal, but it also shares a common social reality and geographical proximity with Venezuela.

Also, Spain and France formed a cluster named Western Europe group. In these two countries accidents have been always been systematically reported (Kpanake et al., 2008). Thus, they share a geographical proximity and a common way of broadcasting accidents. It seems reasonable that the correlations between these two groups (Economically and Socially Challenging group and Western Europe group) had been the highest (r = 0.87, p < 0.05), followed by the linear correlation between the ESC and Brazil (r = 0.70, p < 0.05) which also seems reasonable, given the already mentioned common points between this country and Venezuela and Portugal. Finally, the linear correlation between Brazil and the Western Europe group was the lowest in the present study (r = 0.67, p < 0.05), in other words, Brazil and Spain and France did not completely share the same main concerns, even though their mean ratings were very close (Brazil M = 46.2; Western Europe group M = 46.3).

Limitations

Our size sample is surely one limitation, so generalizations must be done with caution. Also, the fact that the data of the different countries was collected in different years can be questionable. Is there a temporal stability in the societal risk perception? Studies must be done in this direction.

Future directions

Venezuelan people suggest the inclusion of the following items: cableway, subway, highways, elevators, escalators, and plastic surgery. The cableway is understandable, given that they are two big cableways in the country (one in Caracas and the other in Merida), thus Venezuelan people are use to this concept and its risks. The subway in Caracas has open electric rails, in other words, without any physical barrier that prevent people from falling to the rails and killing themselves. There have been cases of suicides and mortal accidents (by electrocution) given the accessibility to the electric rails. Highways, elevators, and escalators can be viewed as risky elements by the Venezuelan people given that Venezuela is a poor country and does not always perform maintenance on this kind of installation, thereby increasing its risk. Finally, plastic surgeries are very common in Venezuela and there have been cases of medical crimes, with people practicing this type of surgeries without being actual medical doctors. The results have been nefarious.

Acknowledgement

Acknowledgements: I am grateful to Félix Neto (Universidade do Porto, Portugal) and Etienne Mullet (École Pratique des Hautes Études, Paris) for their thoughtful comments on an earlier draft of this article.

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Notes

* Research article.

Author notes

** Departamento de Psicología Cognitiva. E-mail: anagabrielaguedez@gmail.com