Recently, a few of my colleagues at Academia Sinica's Sun Yat-sen Institute for Social Science and Philosophy and I conducted a telephone survey of residents in three counties and cities in central Taiwan.
It wasn't hard to sketch out the mentality of the people in the quake-devastated area, based on the answers provided by the more than 1,000 interviewees. They exhibit a mentality not entirely consistent with the image of quake victims painted by the media during the past two months.
Among the 1,014 respondents, 460 neither suffered any direct harm from the quake nor knew anyone that could be classified by the government as a quake victim. The remaining 554 included 100 people who were classified as quake victims and those with family members, relatives, neighbors, and or friends who fit into that category.
Besides sketching an overall impression of the quake area based on the responses of all the residents in the area, I was also looking for any difference in post-quake psychological syndromes between victims and non-victims.
Based on the responses, residents of the quake-stricken areas do not appear to exhibit any negative and cynical mentality or any tendency to blame others for their misfortune. Even the victims do not particularly blame others or exhibit a selfish attitude of caring for no one except themselves.
Among the answers provided by all the sample groups, only a very small percentage of the interviewees (less than 10 percent) thought that "other people have been selfish." An average of 45 percent across the sample groups believe that everyone is willing to lend a helping hand to others. In fact, the victims appear to feel more deeply about other people's kindness.
This highly trustful, willing to help, and altruistic social mentality is very special, because the residents of the victimized area are three times more likely to exhibit this mentality in comparison with the people in all other areas of Taiwan combined. As you can see, the victims do feel grateful for the care and assistance offered by our society in the wake of the disaster.
The survey also indicates that even in the quake area, 65 percent of the interviewees made donations after the earthquake. Yes, a higher percentage of the non-victims made donations than the victims. However, even among the victims, 40 to 60 percent made donations. In comparison with the figures from other areas of Taiwan (ie, 80 percent made donations), these figures may be lower, but the generosity is nevertheless heartwarming.
Residents of the quake area all viewed their individual financial condition and overall quality of life before the earthquake as relatively good. This view is far more positive than their view of the living condition of others or Taiwan as a whole. On average approximately 80 percent and 90 percent of the interviewees rated their financial condition and quality of life before the earth quake as very good and pretty good, respectively. How-ever, 36 percent of the residents indicated a deterioration of their financial condition and quality of life after the quake.
The victims, more so than others, feel deeply about the major blows and changes to their financial and living conditions. I would like to remind the government and society at large to take into consideration this difference in mentality and offer special attention and care to the victims.
The people in the quake-devastated area, both victims and the non-victims, have an admirable optimism and tenacity in their outlook for their own future and that of society as a whole.
The percentage of people feeling optimistic clearly exceeds the percentage of people feeling pessimistic. About 60 percent feel optimistic about their future, while 27 percent feel pessimistic. About 50 percent feel optimistic about the future of Taiwan, while about 34 percent feel pessimistic. One thing worth noting is that the victims did not exhibit a stronger sense of pessimism and negative emotions.
As many as 97 percent of the residents rated their relationship with their spouse prior to the earthquake as very good or pretty good. About the same percentage of the interviewees considered their family relationship to be very good. These figures are comparable those from other areas.
About 70 to 80 percent of respondents said their relationship with their spouse did not change after the quake, but it is worth noting that almost 20 percent indicated that their spousal and family relationships actually improved and became more intimate after surviving the quake. Only about 20 percent indicated that these relationships had deteriorated.
The response of the victims are especially positive in this area, which proves that true love does last through adversity. The affinity between couples and family members actually grew stronger after the earthquake.
Based on this, we can see that the personal interactions and support within the victim families and families in the quake area in general are not as fragile and weak as others thought. Their tenacious family relationships have served as emotional support throughout the reconstruction process.
The residents' view on the quality of the Taiwan society as a whole is particularly worth our attention.
Generally speaking, about 52 percent of the interviewees are dissatisfied with the overall quality of Taiwan's society as a whole, while 48 percent are satisfied.
About 77 percent are dissatisfied with Taiwan's crime rate; only about 23 percent say it is acceptable or satisfactory.
The split is about 50-50 between those who said they are satisfied and those who are dissatisfied with Taiwan's social and economic conditions.
It is also worth noting that the victims do not exhibit any special dissatisfaction or outrage with Taiwan's overall environment as a result of the earthquake.
Generally speaking, the residents of the quake-stricken area are not suffering from any serious collective post-quake syndrome.
However, the victims do deserve our continuous and close attention. Therefore, the government, the media and all segments of our society that care about the reconstruction should make a distinction between the residents of the area in general and quake victims.
Do not exaggerate and generalize the problems unique to the victims into common problems affecting residents of the entire quake-hit area.
Hsiao Hsin-huang is a research fellow of the Sun Yat-sen Institute for Social Science and Philosophy at the Academia Sinica.
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