As Women Live Longer, What Do They Need Most?

Women in the United States can live into their 80s, 90s, and even 100s—outliving men nearly five years on average. Over the next four decades, the number of women aged 85 years and older will nearly triple in size. Many will live alone and in poverty, with increasingly fewer supports on which to rely as they age. Although women can spend their lives caring for children, partners, and parents, often while working multiple jobs, as they grow older, many find their physical, emotional, and financial needs cannot be met. Using data recently collected for the Urban Institute’s EMPOWER: Building Late-Life Resilience study, with funding from the National Institute of Justice, we examine the needs of low-income women aged 85 years and older (N=35) living alone in Arizona communities. We explore issues of home safety perceptions and social isolation and study their relationship to women’s physical, emotional, and financial wellbeing.

Effect of Institutional Trust on Consumers’ Health and Safety Perceptions and Repurchase Intention for Traceable Fresh Food

Numerous food safety incidents have gained public attention and motivated consumers to seek safer and healthier products. Some governments have responded by enacting legislation to regulate the traceability of agricultural products and enhance food safety. To elucidate factors that affect consumers’ health and safety perceptions and repurchase intention for certified traceable fresh food, this study applied institutional trust theory to explore the effects of institutional trust (i.e., trust in government, certification organizations, producers, and retailers) on consumers’ food safety and health perceptions and repurchase intention. This study was conducted in Taiwan and enrolled 393 consumers who purchased certified traceable fresh food as survey participants. Structural equation modeling and multiple and stepwise regression analysis were performed for data analysis. The results indicated that trust in government, certification organizations, food producers, and food retailers was positively related to food safety perception; trust in certification organizations, food producers, and food retailers directly influenced food healthiness perception, whereas trust in government did not have a direct influence. Furthermore, trust in certification organizations and food producers influenced repurchase intention, whereas trust in government and food retailers did not. Based on these results, the current study provides some practical suggestions for traceable fresh food marketers to use institutional trust to improve consumers’ food health and safety perceptions and repurchase intention.

Communicating safety precautions can help maintain in-person voter turnout during a pandemic

Scholars have linked cost and life stress to lower voter turnout with clear implications for voting during the COVID-19 pandemic. We ask whether COVID-19 reduces turnout intention and how election agencies can mitigate this effect. We use a series of six survey and conjoint experiments implemented in samples totalling over 28,000 Canadian respondents collected between July and November of 2020 to show that: 1) priming people to think about COVID-19 reduces turnout intention, especially among those who feel most threatened by the disease; 2) safety measures for in-person voting, such as mandatory masks and physical distancing, can improve safety perceptions and willingness to vote in-person, and 3) providing people information about safety precautions for in-person voting mitigates the negative effect of priming COVID-19. These studies illustrate the importance of both the implementation and communication of measures by election agencies designed to make people safe – and feel safe – while voting in-person.

Safety perceptions at the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic in Poland

Motives: The pandemic situation created unique opportunity to undertake research in the context of the changed living conditions of the population. Aim: The main purpose is to assess broadly understood safety perceptions at the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic in Poland. The key research tool used was a survey questionnaire (270 respondents), complemented by observations in Poznań (Poland) and photographic documentation. Hometown was chosen due to imposed restrictions on movement. Results: The COVID-19 pandemic significantly changed people’s life in many aspects and therefore affected perceived safety. Level of fear of the pandemic was varied and so was keeping up to date with information about the pandemic outcomes. Before the pandemic people felt safer in the analysed various places. Implication of the pandemic for everyday behaviour was significant, resulting e.g. in leaving home when it is absolutely necessary, working from home. Most of the imposed restrictions were rated positively.