Socioeconomic Status and Risk Perceptions: Evidence from the Zika Epidemic in Brazil

• In Event: 4354 - Social Psychology

Abstract

Health risks tend to be unevenly distributed across socioeconomic status, yet investigations of how socioeconomic status contributes to perceptions of such risks remain scarce. In this study, we leverage focus group data collected among women of reproductive age (N=114) during the first year and half of the Zika epidemic in Brazil—an epidemic that spread rapidly when little was understood about the virus’s pathology and that took place in one of the most unequal countries in the world—to understand how socioeconomic status contributes to disparate perceptions. Risk perceptions were closely tied to biographical experiences, the experiences of network members, and economic and infrastructural conditions, each of which was shaped by socioeconomic status. Though virtually all study participants believed they faced some risk of infection, most believed that poorer women faced greater risks than wealthier women.

Authors

• Abigail Weitzman, University of Texas

• Leticia Marteleto, University of Texas-Austin

• Raquel Coutinho, University of North Carolina