Social Representations in Pandemic Contexts
Summary
Social representations in pandemic contexts refer to the collective ways in which societies interpret, communicate and negotiate the meaning of infectious disease outbreaks. Drawing on social representation theory, this field examines how everyday knowledge is constructed through language, imagery and practice. During a pandemic, representations influence risk perception, adherence to health measures and intergroup relations by shaping shared beliefs about vulnerability, responsibility and moral worth. Research has demonstrated that these representations emerge across different media, producing symbolic frameworks that both reflect and reinforce social hierarchies. They manifest in visual portrayals of “responsible citizens” versus “irresponsible others,” in emotional narratives of fear and solidarity, and in stigmas attached to particular communities. Understanding these dynamics is crucial for designing effective public health communication, countering misinformation and preventing discrimination that can undermine collective efforts to control disease spread.
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Social Representations in Pandemic Contexts publication trend
The graph below shows the total number of articles in social representations in pandemic contexts across all publications each year (not limited to Nature Index journals).
Technical terms
Social representation: Shared frameworks through which communities construct and communicate collective understanding of phenomena.
Positioning theory: Analytical approach examining how discourse and imagery assign social roles, rights and duties to individuals or groups.
Stigmatization: Process by which particular individuals or communities are negatively labelled and devalued in social discourse.
Visual rhetoric: Study of how images convey arguments and shape public perceptions through symbolic and compositional elements.
References
- Exploring the Motivation Behind Discrimination and Stigmatization Related to COVID-19: A Social Psychological Discussion Based on the Main Theoretical Explanations. Frontiers in Psychology (2020).
- How newspaper images position different groups of people in relation to the COVID‐19 pandemic: A social representations approach. Journal of Community & Applied Social Psychology (2021).
- Exploring the Social and Emotional Representations Used by the Elderly to Deal With the COVID-19 Pandemic. Frontiers in Psychology (2021).
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