What Do Italians Think About Coronavirus? An Exploratory Study on Social Representations

Elisa Colì; Maurizio Norcia; Alessandro Bruzzone

Elisa Colì Institute of Cognitive Sciences and Technologies - Italian National Research Council (CNR)
Maurizio Norcia Institute of Cognitive Sciences and Technologies - Italian National Research Council
Alessandro Bruzzone Faculty of Psychology - Uninettuno Telematic International University

Keywords: novel Coronavirus SARS-CoV-2, social representation, central core theory, content analysis, emotions’ and media’s role

Abstract

This research aims to analyze the structure and content of the social representation of the novel Coronavirus SARS-CoV-2, paying particular attention to socially constructed meanings, in order to understand in what way the Covid-19 pandemic is going to take form in the collective consciousness. The study involved 484 Italian citizens, recruited through snowball sampling. Data were collected using the free association technique and the inductive term “Coronavirus”, by an online questionnaire administered between April 17 and April 26, 2020. Participants were also asked to clarify the meaning of each of the three words elicited. The corpus of words was analyzed by using EVOC 2005 software, adopting a structural approach and following the prototypical method. The corpus of sentences related to the meanings of the words has been analyzed through an inductive content analysis supported by Nvivo10 software. The social representation of Covid-19 is structured around fear, which represents the shared emotion that revolves around the risk of contagion and the current pandemic state. Alongside these elements that constitute the central system, the representation is enriched with further terms located in the near peripheries, probably shared by certain subgroups and related to physical consequences, to the daily situation of quarantine, and knowledge about the virus. The other elements related for example to specific feelings, to the perception of danger, or the protection are probably anchored to subjective experiences. Some relevant aspects, such as parallelism with other representations, the role of the media, and emotions, have been identified and discussed.

Author Biographies

Elisa Colì, Institute of Cognitive Sciences and Technologies - Italian National Research Council (CNR)

ELISA COLI’ is a licensed psychotherapist specialized in Health Psychology. She is currently a Researcher at the Institute of Cognitive Sciences and Technologies of CNR and Professor of “Social Psychology of Web Relationships” at Uninettuno Telematic International University. Her main research interests focus on: lay and expert representations of social and topical phenomena (e.g. neurolaw, environmental and health disasters); interpersonal trust in online and offline environments, and trust in Health System and Institutions. She conducts her research in the field, with a preference for the integration of qualitative and quantitative tools.

Maurizio Norcia, Institute of Cognitive Sciences and Technologies - Italian National Research Council

MAURIZIO NORCIA is a researcher at the Institute of Cognitive Sciences and Technologies. His research interests include mainly social cognition and attribution theory but also research methodology, statistics, and measurement.

Alessandro Bruzzone, Faculty of Psychology - Uninettuno Telematic International University

ALESSANDRO BRUZZONE got a degree in Communication Sciences and he is pursuing his studies in Psychology, writing a thesis on the social representation of the Morandi Bridge reconstruction and trust in public institutions. He currently works in the Telecommunication sector. His research interests focus on social representation theory and stress management in organizational contexts.