Onderzoeksartikel

Bezorgdheid en geïnformeerdheid van Europese burgers over industriële en natuurlijke risico's

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Abstract

A multilevel analysis of secondary data for 16 European countries is conducted in order to shed light on the concurrent explanatory power on being worried and feeling informed about industrial and natural risks of three groups of characteristics: (1) number and impact of actual disasters; (2) orientation on the societal environment (trust information sources; political orientation); and (3) sociodemography. A decomposition of variance reveals that a minor though significant amount of variation between respondents is in fact situated at the country level (between 3.6 and 6.4%), of which about half is explained by data on the amount and gravity of actual incidents having taken place in the respondent’s own country. On the person level, gender (being female) and age (being middle-aged) lead to higher levels of worry and lower levels of feeling informed about natural risks. Those in white-collar professions and those living in urbanized areas feel better informed about both industrial and natural risks. Consistent with earlier research, a left-wing political orientation leads to a higher than average level of worry and feeling informed; the reverse is true for a rightwing orientation. Trust in experts, NGo’s and the media causes higher levels of worry and feeling informed, as does using these institutions as sources of information. All in all, however, the explanatory power of these demographic and orientation characteristics is rather poor. It seems that risk perception research is well-advised to explore other explanatory directions.

How to Cite:

Huysmans, F. & Steenbekkers, A., (2004) “Bezorgdheid en geïnformeerdheid van Europese burgers over industriële en natuurlijke risico's”, Tijdschrift voor Communicatiewetenschap 32(4), 339–360. doi: https://doi.org/10.21825/tvc.93113