Trust, Social and Personal Attitudes after Wildfires in a Rural Region of Greece

Vicky Papanikolaou, Dimitrios Adamis, Robert C. Mellon, Gerasimos Prodromitis, John Kyriopoulos

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DOI: 10.4236/sm.2012.21012                

Abstract

We investigated the trust in institutions, social values and personal attitudes of individuals in a part of Greece, after a wildfire disaster. The design of the study was a cross sectional, case-control study. Data collected were trust in institutions, social and personal attitudes, type and number of losses. The results show that victims and controls have low trust in all the institutions and share similar social and personal attitudes. Controlling for other variables, victims of the wildfires were less likely to appreciate stable social rules, to value the dialogue, autonomy, mutual support, modesty, wealth, equality, compliance with law, devotion, public recognition, safety and less likely to trust the government but more likely to trust church. This study suggests that victims of the wildfires in Greece did not appreciate important social values which bring a society together, they have a low trust in institutions, and they have a weak social cohesion which perhaps pre-existed the disaster; just the disaster has made all of them worse.

Keywords

Disasters; Wildfires; Greece; Trust; Social Capital; Social Cohesion

Conflicts of Interest

The authors declare no conflicts of interest.

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