The coronavirus epidemic is present on all continents. A collective fear sets in and changes our relationship with one another. Since December 2019, the new coronavirus has infected over 180,000 people for 7,000 deaths. This global virus is changing our relationships and our behavior. Why and how does this phenomenon transform our way of thinking?
In the recent period, there have been several epidemics, from the appearance of Ebola through AIDS, H5N1 or SARS. These epidemics or pandemics were initially unknown. If we take the example of coronavirus, a few weeks ago no one had heard of it. Some people think the name has just been invented when it has been around for a long time.
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In front of any form of epidemic which threatens our health and the life of the individuals, are put in place ideas of magic recipe, of superstition. When coronavirus was confined to China, there was disinterest and stigmatization of the Chinese. When the epidemic arrived in Europe, the blame diminished and turned into a stigma for those infected. When someone coughs, everyone turns around. This is the protective behaviors that arise from the magic thought which is linked to superstition. In times of uncertainty, we refer to superstition. At first we do not have enough information and we set up a series of behaviors which is part of the magic recipe. Some put a special cream on their skin, others say that it is necessary to avoid such-and-such a person, etc. They observed the same thing with the Zika virus when some said that one could walk around in the evening without risk of being bitten by a mosquito carrying the virus or dressing in white protected us. These behaviors reassure and help manage uncertainty in the face of uncertain and unmanageable elements.
We are social beings. We need to make sense of and understand our environment. When something happens to us, we want to understand why. We cannot explain natural disasters or epidemics. We can turn to science, but even it does not explain everything. For coronavirus, we can go back to the market in Wuhan and to the bat, but it tells us how – but not why - the virus arrived. We can also turn to God by saying that it is a divine disease, or we can go to conspiratorial beliefs with the government which would act in secret. We need to have an explanation, an answer. This is how we come to need a scapegoat. The best example is that we have, these are stereotypes about groups of people, and this uncertainty brings out our prejudices. When we categorize, with an ‘we’ and an ‘them’, biases are activated. We think our group is better than the others, that the others are all the same and that we are all different. These prejudices will serve as an explanation, a justification. It’s the same thing to create cohesion in a group, we often look for a scapegoat or someone to oppose.
For the past few days, many people have said that coronavirus is like the flu. However, it has nothing to do with flu since it is a lung disease. In fact, we know little, so we will develop profane knowledge from our interactions, from our representation of the world, from what we can read. It is this profane knowledge that will induce collective fear. We have an opinion on everything when we do not have sufficient knowledge on all subjects. When we are confronted with an unknown object, we create a representation with a double process of objectification and anchoring. The first notion refers to the fact that to speak of a subject, we will only select certain elements according to our own prejudices. Anchoring is how we incorporate what we have selected into our thought system, how it is consistent with the rest of our ideas. We might distort, exaggerate, or delete certain information so it fits into our own reading grid.
There is a high probability that beliefs that seem irrational, such as conspiracy theories, fake news or the like, will multiply. They already exist, but when a full-blown epidemic is triggered, there will be many more. The reason is that it will no longer be a question of confining the disease to prevent it from developing but, because we have failed in containing the disease, to place all the resources in hospitals and emergency services. For everyone, this means it is very serious because it is the last epidemic stage. The measures taken to stem the spread of the virus will be dropped and most of the efforts will be redirected to hospitals. People will see government effort less every day, and this is where conspiracy theories will come in.
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