Out in the midday sun: Risk behaviour and optimistic beliefs among residents and visitors on Tenerife

A questionnaire was distributed to 107 local residents on a beach on the is land of Tenerife and to 108 visitors from Britain and continental Europe. M easures included perceived danger of sun exposure, environmental concern, v alue of a suntan, optimism regarding personal risk of skin damage relative to others of one's age and gender, amount of midday sun exposure, sunscreen use and skin type. Use of sunscreen protection was greatly below recommend ed levels, though higher for women (N= 103). Among visitors, the British (N = 54) showed the riskiest behaviour. Relationship between behaviour, belief s and background variables varied between groups. Overall there was a signi ficant optimistic bias. This was stronger for the British, and for men. The relationships between optimism and other measures varied between the diffe rent national groups. In particular, among the British, greater optimism wa s associated with placing a higher value on a suntan, with having a more se nsitive skin type, with using less adequate sunscreen protection, and with spending a (nonsignificantly) greater proportion of time exposed to the sun in the middle of the day. Among locals and visitors from continental Europ e, optimism was associated with less midday exposure. It is concluded that these data offer evidence for two complementary interpretations of the rela tionship between optimism and health behaviour. On the one hand, those who perceive themselves to be at greater risk may be motivated to take more pre cautions, while risk-taking may be greater among those regard themselves as less vulnerable. On the other hand, those who take more precautions may in fer that their own relative risk is lower. it is argued that research shoul d not assume a single process relating perceived risk to behaviour, but con sider factors that might predict the relative importance of alternative pro cesses.