Perceptions of peril

A recent survey of attitudes in the regions of Russia contaminated by the 1986 Chernobyl accident appears to refute the conventional wisdom that it is ignorance that breeds fear. The anxieties of residents selected at random from eight of the twenty-four regions identified by the Ministry of Health as being the most severely contaminated by radiation from Chernobyl are reviewed. Correlations between public anxiety and availability of information, quantity of medical care and numbers of meetings with government officials and health workers, and numbers of concrete activities (e.g. measuring radiation, conducting medical screenings, and monitoring the quality of food) are drawn. Distance from Chernobyl could not be cited as the major factor in forming public attitudes. Somewhat contradictory attitudes about nuclear energy were revealed. The survey is an important first step in understanding the social consequences of the accident at Chernobyl