Risk Perception in Portugal: The Importance of a Magic Word. J. M. Palma-Oliveira and S. Correia dos Santos, Department of Psychology, University of Lisbon, Alameda da Universidade, 1600 Lisbon, Portugal, telephone 351 936 6150919, fax 351 1 7933408, e-mail palma@mail.telepac.pt
During the last decade we have been studying the risk perception phenomena in Portugal. It was used all kind of objects (landfill, incineration and co-incineration plants, global issues, industry security) with a diverse array of subjects (engineers, school teachers, national representative surveys, population near to the sites). From those studies it was possible to conclude that, besides a general high level of risk perception, there is a interesting pattern: the importance of the word “toxic” and the central role of the landfilling process.
From the data one can conclude that, when there is an attempt to build a waste treatment infra-structure in Portugal the opposition is particularly evident when we are dealing with toxic waste (versus urban waste) or when we are trying to install a landfill (versus incineration). We will present diverse types of data where we confront the perception of risk in the operation of a toxic waste landfill, toxic waste incinerator, urban incineration, and toxic waste co-incineration.
That interpretation is also corroborated by the results of the systematic comparisons between the populations near the sites and the ones more far away. From that analysis we observe what distance is necessary in order to observe a turning point (where a population starts to be positive towards an infra-structure). Those results confirm the possibility of ordering the infra-structures in risk perception and acceptance.
We would explain the results applying not only the factors from the psychometric theory of risk perception but also some social and historical aspects of the Portuguese reality.
It would be discussed that the high level of risk perception and high perceived insecurity from all industrial operations across the nation also imply a new reinterpretation of the NIMBY effect.
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