Abstract
Knowing how people perceive multiple risks is essential to the management and promotion of public health and safety. Here we present a dataset based on a survey (N = 4,154) of public risk perception in Italy and Sweden during the COVID-19 pandemic. Both countries were heavily affected by the first wave of infections in Spring 2020, but their governmental responses were very different. As such, the dataset offers unique opportunities to investigate the role of governmental responses in shaping public risk perception. In addition to epidemics, the survey considered indirect effects of COVID-19 (domestic violence, economic crises), as well as global (climate change) and local (wildfires, floods, droughts, earthquakes, terror attacks) threats. The survey examines perceived likelihoods and impacts, individual and authorities’ preparedness and knowledge, and socio-demographic indicators. Hence, the resulting dataset has the potential to enable a plethora of analyses on social, cultural and institutional factors influencing the way in which people perceive risk.
Highlights
IntroductionRisk is often seen as a combination of hazard, exposure, and vulnerability[1]
Background & SummaryRisk is often seen as a combination of hazard, exposure, and vulnerability[1]
While some individuals might be unaware of the potential occurrence of a given hazard, others might misjudge their level of exposure, vulnerability, or both
Summary
Risk is often seen as a combination of hazard, exposure, and vulnerability[1]. While some individuals might be unaware of the potential occurrence of a given hazard (e.g. epidemics, earthquakes or floods), others might misjudge their level of exposure, vulnerability, or both. This paper presents a new dataset that provides unique opportunities to investigate public risk perception under the COVID-19 pandemic. We explore public perceptions of risk in Italy and Sweden around nine threats: epidemics, floods, droughts, earthquakes, wildfires, terror attacks, domestic violence, economic crises, and climate change. A total of 4,154 participants (NITA = 2,033, NSWE = 2,121) have been surveyed online and the results are assembled in this dataset. The survey was performed in the period 5–19 August 2020 and will be repeated in November 2020 and August 2021
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