Effects of Personal Factors on Risk Behaviors among Indian and Ethiopian Students: A Comparative Study

Risk is the uncertain degree to which one might be exposed to an undesirable consequence. Associated with risk are several paradoxes. It is part of human nature to be attracted to risk. At the same time, there is evidence that human beings try to avoid risk in many situations. Some individuals take more risk than others. Risk perception and taking are affected by the way choices are framed. Individuals may be risk seeking in some situations and risk averse in others. Individuals may feel more pain from losses than from equivalent gains. Hence, the study was aimed to examine the cultural differences of risk perception and risk taking behaviors between Indian and Ethiopian students. The main objective of the study was to explore the risk behaviors among students from Indian and Ethiopian nationalities. The risk-taking scale of the 30-item version of the revised DOSPERT Scale was used, consisting five domains of life, viz., ethical, financial, health/safety, social, and recreational risks. Subjects of the study were drawn randomly from research scholars and post graduate students who have been pursuing their study at Andhra University, India. The samples of the study consist of 32 (41%) subjects from Indian culture and 46 (59%) subjects from Ethiopian culture. The obtained data from the samples were analyzed using univariate to examine the effects of personal factors, viz., age and level of education, on risk behavior dimensions for two nationalities. Hence, mean scores on health, social, financial and recreation risk taking tend to increase with age for India nationality while decreases as age increases for Ethiopian nationality. However, the effects of personal factors on financial, recreational and social risk perception behaviors did not reach at statistical significant levels for Ethiopian and Indian nationality