Why do we feel threatened in our home and what does the TV have to do with it? Numbers and comments.
As part of a joint project with the Yuri Levada Analytical Center, we continue to compile a psychological portrait of our society. Today we decided to find out what threats we feel in everyday life.
65% of Russians today feel completely or at least relatively safe on the streets (1). And a year earlier, only 37% considered their streets safe. However, this giant leap in confidence is just what is alarming. After all, there has been absolutely no change in the past year. Natalya Zorkaya, head of the socio-political research department at the Levada Center, is inclined to explain what is happening as a surge of “negative collectivism.” In her opinion, society, largely under the influence of the media, is now uniting under the banner of the “Russian world” and confrontation with the “hostile West.” At the same time, real problems are crowded out and perceived less sharply. Natalya Zorkaya recalls that sociologists note an increase in positive sentiments regarding most social and political processes: “For example, poll participants talk about an improvement in the situation in the North Caucasus, immediately admitting that they know nothing about it.”
This hypothesis is supported by participants’ responses to another question in that study. They were asked to rate how safe their home “environment” is. Of those who participated in the survey, 72% were unsure about food safety. 68% suspect that their health may be threatened by the medications they take. And 51% consider children’s toys unsafe. Interestingly, negative collectivism is powerless here. TV may convince us that things are better in the country or even on the street, but at home we are confronted with reality in the most direct way.. The need for security is one of the basic psychological needs of every person. But it manifests itself in the desire not only for an objectively safe environment, but also for a subjective sense of security, explains psychologist Yevgeny Osin: “Our anxiety is to varying degrees connected with reality. Often, at the level of consciousness, we are not afraid of what really worries us and what we are afraid to admit to ourselves. A constant sense of danger suggests that we do not trust the world, people and the future.”. Evgeny Osin recalls that absolute security, by definition, does not exist: “Happy is not the one who lives in a safe place, but the one who lives aware of possible dangers, takes reasonable measures to prevent them, and has a backup plan in case this won’t succeed.”
1. The survey was conducted on June 20-23, 2014, for more details see the website