Risk perception normalization of sunlight exposure
Journal Title: Environment and Social Psychology - Year 2018, Vol 3, Issue 2
Abstract
Health organizations recommend avoiding direct sunlight exposure usually between 11 am and 5 pm. Nevertheless, it is common to see people on the beach during all day. This study focuses on understanding if sunlight exposure risk might be normalized. Risk normalization is a process by which people minimize a perceive threat to psychologically cope with it, frequently by using positive illusions. A pilot study (N = 44) suggests that the positive illusions most referred to explain exposition at unrecommended hours are the use of protective measures. To explore if knowledge of sunlight exposure risk and risk perception were negatively associated, illustrating risk normalization, a questionnaire was applied to a convenience sample (N = 276). This effect was found among those individuals that exposed themselves to sunlight between 12 am and 3 pm and reported a use of protective measures that was above the average. Furthermore, health literacy moderated the negative relation between knowledge and risk perception. This study suggests that it is important communicating that the use of protective measures during unrecommended hours does not guarantee protection, promoting health literacy, as it can minimize risk normalization, and understanding how information on risks and benefits interacts to influence risk perception.
Authors and Affiliations
Gabriela Gaspar, Sílvia Luís
Keywords
Related Articles
- EP ID EP678871
- DOI -
- Views 166
- Downloads 0
Confronting the socio-psychological environment: Feminist/political art protest in contemporary Russia from Pussy Riot to ‘Spiritual Combat’ exhibition
Issues related to psychological and environmental conditions are crucial for the analysis of contemporary activist art’s political impact. Russia is a patriarchal society, and the Orthodox Church is particularly powerful...
Environment and social psychology: A good nexus
A paradigmatic search for human-environmental-social-development calls for bio-global civility. This article is a modest attempt to signify social psychology as a discipline that promotes environmentally conducive transf...
Group processes, intergroup relations and human resource practices in mergers and acquisitions post-combination: A critical review and research agenda for the future
Despite ongoing crisis and recession, mergers and acquisitions (M&As) are used by companies to reinforce and sustain their place in business world. Regardless of M&As popularity, though, the successful integration of emp...
Transforming social work: Transcending vocational purpose—new book challenges current perspectives on social work
In his monograph “Transforming Social Work” (Rapid Book Service, Lucknow, India), renowned author Dr. Brij Mohan cautions that the social work profession now stands at the crossroads of change in a globally transformed w...
Restore: An R of Sustainability that Can Tame the “Conundrum”
The environmental benefits of sustainability efforts can be rendered less effective due to economic feedback mechanisms. As a remedy against such rebound effects, a reinvestment strategy towards environmental causes has...