Understanding an Ebola outbreak: Social representations of emerging infectious diseases

This study examined the collective image of the 2014–2015 Ebola outbreak, to understand how people incorporate this epidemic in their everyday thinking. A free association exercise elicited by Ebola was answered by 294 people from Spain and the content was analysed using Alceste software. First, res...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Journal of health psychology 2017-06, Vol.22 (7), p.951-960
Main Authors: Idoiaga Mondragon, Nahia, Gil de Montes, Lorena, Valencia, Jose
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Adolescent
Adult
Aged
Anger
Collective representation
Communicable Diseases, Emerging - psychology
Disease Outbreaks
Ebola virus
Epidemics
Exercise
Fear & phobias
Female
Free association
Health Knowledge, Attitudes, Practice - ethnology
Hemorrhagic Fever, Ebola - psychology
Humans
Infectious diseases
Male
Mass media
Mass media images
Middle Aged
Software
Spain - ethnology
Viruses
Young Adult
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Summary:This study examined the collective image of the 2014–2015 Ebola outbreak, to understand how people incorporate this epidemic in their everyday thinking. A free association exercise elicited by Ebola was answered by 294 people from Spain and the content was analysed using Alceste software. First, results showed that Ebola was represented as inherently African. Second, it was also depicted as a global threat creating fear. People also felt anger, and they blamed political authorities and the mass media for the failure to manage this crisis. Finally, this research underlines the importance of the social representations to understand how current outbreaks are cognitively represented and emotionally faced as a key factor to appropriately manage future epidemics.
ISSN:1359-1053
1461-7277
DOI:10.1177/1359105315620294