Investigating the link between risk perceptions and culture

Do cultural norms and values influence the extent of our worries about risks and experiencing harms associated with those risks? Do social and economic factors come in to play and if so, which ones?

The LRF Institute for the Public Understanding of Risk (IPUR) conducted the largest cross-cultural study across 86 countries to investigate the link between culture and risk perceptions as well as experience and found that cultural dimensions such as individualism and masculinity influence people’s perception of present risk while masculinity, among cultural variables, was found to be a significant predictor of people’s worries about future risk.

The study sheds light to give potential explanations as to why people in different cultural settings perceive and respond to a similar set of risks differently despite similar characteristics as defined by commonly-used dichotomies such as economic performance, nation’s wealth, and human development.

By understanding the patterns of cultural differences among societies and how it shapes the perception and experience of risk, we can begin charting a roadmap to ensure the safety and wellbeing of communities worldwide. Furthermore, understanding the cultural effect on the extent of people’s perception and experience of risk could help policymakers to identify timely and targeted interventions during heightened risk situations such as an epidemic as well as design tailored community engagements to build trust in their leadership.

The full report can be accessed here.