Search

The aim of this study was to explore the COVID-19 pandemic social representation in the early stages of its development. Following a free association task and a categorical analysis, a corpus of COVID-19-related editorial illustrations from articles posted by leading French newspapers was collected. Iconographic analysis of editorial illustrations revealed 12 iconic patterns that seemed typical of the pandemic iconography. Findings suggest that articles eliciting the greatest engagement (i.e. reactions, comments, and shares) are those that use a stable iconography so that the topic can easily be identified by most Facebook users. Therefore, these images could play an important role in the objectification process development of the COVID-19 social representation. Future studies should therefore explore the impact of the relationship between the news media and their audiences on the visual representation of highly topical issues, in the light of the objectification process of social representation theory.

International audience; Road accidents are still a major public health issue today, particularly among young drivers for whom these accidents are the leading cause of death. Indeed, they are involved in 31% of accidents and account for 15% of those killed (ONISR: Observatoire National Interministériel de la Sécurité Routière, Paris, 2018). The aim of this study is to explore the factor structure of the multidimensional scale of Traffic Locus of Control (T-LOC) among French students in order to shed new light on the potential causes of accidents. The sample includes 226 French students (145 women and 81 men), all drivers. The questionnaire comprises items translated into French from the T-LOC (Özkan and Lajunen in Pers Individ Dif 38:533–545, 2005) as well as items related to their socio-demographic and mobility characteristics. Exploratory (N = 226) and confirmatory factor (N = 195) analyses indicate that all items contribute to the creation of the four factors: Other drivers, Self, Vehicle and environment and Fate. The results of the hierarchical regressions indicate that Self, Other drivers, number of years holding a driving license, annual mileage, and age are factors that contribute significantly to road risk-taking. The four-factor structure of the French version appears to be an appropriate tool to better understand road behavior.

Introduction: More than two years ago, the world was hit by the health crisis of COVID-19. This crisis has had many impacts, some of which are not yet fully visible. Publications have increased in this field, but some subjects remain to be studied in depth, such as the question of territorial or social inequalities in the face of this health crisis and its illustration in the field of social thinking. Methods: This qualitative research is based on the hierarchical free association method used in Social Representations Theory (SRT). The survey was conducted on a French sample during the first lockdown between March and May, 2020. Different groups and social categories were questioned, including rural/urban, executives, employees, or unemployed people. The results showed a social representation of the coronavirus that differs in certain groups, with, for example, a greater perception of risk in the unemployed group. Results: These results confirm that the consequences of this health crisis since the first lockdown in March, 2020, had already impacted representations that reflected social and territorial inequalities. Conclusion: These results are discussed in the light of international experience and, in particular, that of Brazil, one of the countries most affected by the health crisis.

Climate change is a global environmental issue and its outcome will affect societies around the world. In recent years, we have seen a growing literature on media coverage of climate change, but, to date, no study has assessed the situation in Cameroon, although it is considered to be one of the world’s most affected and vulnerable regions. This study attempted to address this deficit by analysing how climate change is represented in the Cameroonian media. A similarity analysis was performed on three newspapers published in 2013–2016. Results showed that climate coverage focused on politics and international involvement. It seems disconnected from local realities, potentially opening up a spatial and social psychological distance. The relationship between the representation of climate change and that of poverty is an area for further exploration.

International audience; The threat of sociopolitical instability is a perennial subject of political debate in Cameroon, even though the country's stability has never really been challenged since independence. Given this omnipresent discussion on the need to preserve social cohesion, the aim of the present study was to analyze social representations of risk. Two studies were carried out among two samples (N1 = 31 and N2 = 156) of Cameroonians with higher education diplomas. Data collected by means of free association and characterization questionnaires were subjected to hierarchical, similarity and Q-sort analyses. These revealed that governance failures are regarded as factors that might undermine social cohesion. Comparative analysis of the risk representations of the country's different ethnic groups revealed several differences. Previous research had emphasized the importance of proximity to the object in the construction of a social representation, and this was also evident in the present study, as social representations of risk for both the whole sample and the different ethnic groups were structured around specific threats or ills that undermine Cameroonian society.; La menace d'instabilité sociopolitique est un sujet de débat politique récurrent au Cameroun alors que la stabilité du pays n'a vraiment pas été remise en cause depuis l'accession du pays à l'indépendance en 1960. Face à l'omniprésence du débat sur la nécessité de préserver la cohésion sociale, cette étude avait pour objectif de mettre en évidence les représentations sociales du risque. Deux études qualitative et quantitative ont été réalisées auprès de deux échantillons (N1 = 31 et N2 = 156) de Camerounais diplômés de l'enseignement supérieur. La tâche d'associations libres et le questionnaire de caractérisation administrés aux participants ont été respectivement soumis à une analyse hiérarchisée, une analyse de similitude (associations libres) et à une analyse Q-sort (questionnaire de caractérisation). Les données analysées indiquent que les défaillances de la gouvernance publique sont considérées comme les facteurs susceptibles d'hypothéquer la cohésion sociale. L'analyse comparative des représentations du risque entre les différents groupes ethniques du pays fait ressortir quelques différences. Comme d'autres travaux sur les représentations sociales, cette étude met en exergue l'importance de la distance à l'objet dans la construction des représentations sociales car les représentations sociales du risque ici, aussi bien pour l'ensemble de l'échantillon que pour les différents groupes ethniques, sont structurées autour de menaces ou des maux qui minent la société camerounaise.

Vaccination has made it possible to combat many infectious diseases by reducing their impact in terms of mortality as well as morbidity. However, reservations about this primary prevention measure, as demonstrated by the difficulties in introducing vaccination against COVID-19. Through the analysis of social representations, we try to understand the reasons for these obstacles.

International audience; Older female drivers could be considered victims of negative stereotypes for two reasons: being a woman and belonging to the older category; but there are no studies specifically in this double context. Two psychosocial questionnaires were created, one assessing the perception of driving abilities in different contexts (PDADC), the second, the perception of the attributes of driving (PAD) with a box for the activation of the stereotype threat. A population of 98 women, aged 65 ¬years or older, comprised the experimental and control groups (quasi-experimental design). This study provides knowledge about the driving feelings of this population who appears, globally, as comfortable at the wheel and "immune" to stereotyping.

Pale skin in China seems to be a norm and the use of face-kinis on the beaches effectively implies that suntanning frightens. However other practices can be observed which raise questions. The aim of this article is to study the social representation of suntanning and the normative aspects of the representation with the conditionality of practices, among adepts of new beach practices in China. Interviews were carried out among a Chinese population who regularly follow these new beach practices on three Zhujiajian island beaches (Zhejiang Province). A free associations test and a conditionality questionnaire were filled out. The results show on one hand that the social representation of suntanning differs between men and women; on the other hand that conditionality differs little between men and women. Regression analysis shows that several sociodemographic variables such as age, can explain the conditions of acceptability of suntanning. Cross-checking the results shows up some contradictory elements which reflect the existence of an ongoing transformation in the identity of Chinese culture.

Support for the agricultural sector from the European Union via the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) is evolving. The last CAP reform in 2014 made one further step toward mandatory approaches. To u...

After months of controversy, the speed limit on two-way secondary French roads without a median strip was reduced from 90 to 80 km/hr on 1 July 2018. Thousands of car drivers and motorcyclists have since protested against this measure, and the present study concerned the latter group. Starting from the Theory of Conditionality in the field of social thinking, which holds that prescriptions are massively conditional, a specific questionnaire based on 23 conditional scripts has been devised. A total of 661 male motorcyclists were asked about the conditions justifying the transgression of the 80 km/hr limit. Results showed that those motorcyclists who exceeded this limit did so by at least by 20 km/hr. A personalized assessment of speed, the pleasure associated with driving, and good road and weather conditions were the most conditional situations, while situations linked to the risk of loss of control were the least conditional. This study suggests that the determinants of risk-taking must be studied at the group and context levels, and that behavior is influenced by the system of social norms. Although this system may conflict with the Highway Code, it reflects an adaptation of the group linked to a need for meaning. Received: 7 July 2021 / Accepted: 12 August 2021 / Published: 5 September 2021

Introduction. The problem of school violence has been studied in the last decades from different perspectives, especially focused on bullying conflicts. Whole school approaches have been recommended by many experts in the field. The aim of the present study is to assess climate changes in two secondary schools that implement a peer support program, and to understand the level of perceived satisfaction.Method. Pre-post study with experimental and control group. Participants were 778 pupils (3 phases) plus 65 teachers at the experimental school; 462 pupils and 29 teachers at the control school. The tools used were questionnaires, focus groups and intensive interviews.Results. All participants believe that the peer support program is useful for improving the perception of safety at school, while the responses of the control school students indicate a general increase in the frequency of conflicts.Discussion y conclusion. Results show the complexity of controlling all the variables linked to changes of context. However, as proposed previously by other authors, objective measures need to be used in assessing school climate, in addition to perceptions shown on self-reports, in order to accurately determine the impact of peer support programs.

In France, as in other countries, young drivers have a higher risk of being killed on the road than other drivers. Because several sociodemographic variables must be taken into account, these are t...

The crisis of the Yellow Vests in France has vastly occupied the media scene since November 2018, and the Great National Debate has just come to an end. The hypothesis can be put forward that the Yellow Vests have become an object of social representation over the months. This exploratory study was performed among a population of young people (average age= 20.5) and took place in two phases: a free associations test to isolate the big themes and a first structure of the social representation (N=11), and a questionnaire of "calling into question" (N=94) to confirm the central or peripheral position of the items. The collection of data 4 months after the beginning of the movement does not put forward the first claims such as the spending power and attests for the media coverage of violence. The Chi-Squared Test shows some significant differences between men and women.

International audience; While we know that using the telephone when driving increases the risk of accidents and that 18 to 24 year-olds are a fringe of the population that is particularly affected by fatal accidents on the road, we lack information concerning the use of the mobile phone in this age group. This study carried out with 208 young drivers aims to gather data, analyses their behavior at the wheel with the mobile plus their beliefs and awareness of risk. Three contexts are focused on: stopping at the red light, driving during the rush hour and highways. The findings highlight the importance of messaging and the influence of the context on the use of the mobile. We observe an inverse effect between the speed and messaging. While young people declare they are aware of certain risks, it concerns more the risks penalties and accordingly they appear to be impervious to road safety campaigns concerning the mobile phone behind the wheel. On this subject few major differences are to be found between male and female drivers and between very young and young drivers. The use of the mobile while driving among 18 to 24-year-olds therefore presents universal characteristics of use from moment or the driver (male or female) is a little more experimented Keywords: Young drivers; risks on the road; the use of the mobile while driving

Los accidentes de trafico son, con gran diferencia, la principal causa de muerte entre los jovenes de entre 15 y 24 anos en los paises desarrollados. Este estudio explora la representacion de los jovenes conductores adolescentes de ciclomotores y la influencia de los modelos de referencia. Entrevistas preliminares han contribuido a la conformacion de un cuestionario tipo test compuesto de 13 items que permite la evaluacion de las elecciones personales entre la asuncion de riesgos y la seguridad, asi como las elecciones atribuidas a sus padres y amigos. Los resultados confirman que las elecciones tomadas por parte de los jovenes estan marcadas por la asuncion de mayor nivel de riesgo que de seguridad y mediante un analisis de regresion, tambien muestran la influencia del modelo de pares sobre sus respuestas. El problema de los accidentes entre los jovenes conductores de ciclomotores, desde una perspectiva de prevencion, es que no solo se debe tener en cuenta el impacto del grupo de referencia compuesto por pares en dicha representacion, sino tambien investigar lo que permitiria dirigir a dichos jovenes hacia un cambio del lado de la seguridad en una negociacion con los padres. Palabras clave: Representacion social, ciclomotores, adolescentes, asuncion de riesgos, transgresion.

International audience; Several studies have examined the links between personality and choice of studies, particularly from a longitudinal point of view. This original research proposes to study these aspects a posteriori. The Rotter questionnaire (1966) was completed by two groups of students in psychology (N=65) and law (N= 91). The other particularity of the samples concerns the location and the differences in socio-economic backgrounds: privileged for law students in Brazil, modest for students in psychology in France. Most of the hypotheses put forward, particularly those related to the citizenship and political aspects, are verified on the basis of the binomial test.

International audience; The use of nanoscale is currently growing. The state legislative regulation on the matter is inexistent. There is the rise of self-regulation, as well as the creation of norms by other social actors. The system of Law needs to enter in the context of innovation, granting legal effects to this regulatory production. The temporality of the new forms of regulation and the ability to deal with future risks and damages represent other challenges for the legal area. The analysis of publications from the OECD and the Web of Science showed that the risk theme is still little discussed in the main scientific journals. From these findings, we present a framework as an regulatory alternative and guideline for the industry that develops products from nanotechnology. Investments in research, categorization and risk analysis throughout the product life cycle is a necessary requirement to guide the governance, the regulation and the self-regulation of the issue.

In the field of social thinking the question of norms give rise to several publications. Moreover there exists no study in this theoretical framework concerning Cameroon drivers’ relationship with the rule. In order to understand this, a group of 50 motorists filled out a characterization questionnaire on driving, purposely oriented to the use of the mobile. The instructions to the drivers were to fill it out for themselves (standard condition) and for other drivers (substitution condition). The results confirm the role of the substitution instructions in bringing to light inadmissible offences with standard instructions. It can be concluded that the Cameroon drivers are well aware of the rule and that they tend to attribute the greatest transgressions to other drivers.

This study tested a modified version of the Theory of Planned Behavior (TPB), in driving under the influence of alcohol that incorporated past behavior and perceived invulnerability in a sample of young French adults. Participants (n = 368, Mean Age = 23.29, SD = 3.69, Age Range 18–35) completed self-report measures of sense of invulnerability, subjective norms attitude, perceived control, intention to drive and drink, and past behavior. This extended model was able to explain 52% of the variance of behavioral intention. In accordance with the TPB, the intention to drink and drive was predicted by Perceived Behavioral Control (PBC), Subjective Norms, Past behavior and Attitudes. The effect of perceived invulnerability on the three determinants of TPB was significant. Psychological invulnerability had a direct influence on Attitudes, Danger Invulnerability on PBC and Interpersonal Invulnerability on Attitude and PCB. The current study provides support for the importance of the sense of invulnerability to traffic risk-taking in young adults.

International audience; Teenagers, who are particularly concerned by the HIV virus, are targeted by plans of HIV prevention, as they are just beginning their sex lives. Since certain recent studies reveal that teenagers are not using HIV prevention methods, we analyse social representations of HIV/AIDS among a group of 100 French high school pupils, thirty years after it appeared and after the first studies of the social representation of AIDS. The results of a free associations test show that both girls and boys have the same social representation of AIDS. The results of a complementary questionnaire tend to show that this disease has become less frightening and less stigmatizing and that girls have a more preventive state of mind.

International audience; Pour lutter contre l'insécurité routière et les risques environnementaux, des spécialistes, acteurs de différents domaines, s'investissent pour apporter des réponses ou proposer des actions. Ces spécialistes et acteurs ne sont pas toujours visibles et ils rapportent ici leurs questionnements et expériences sur des problématiques complémentaires. Cet ouvrage est divisé en trois grands chapitres. Le premier rapporte plusieurs expériences qui témoignent de l'évolution des problématiques environnementales, notamment dans les pays africains.Le deuxième met le focus sur les questions d'éducation/ formation, sur des aspects plus juridiques mais également sur l'importance des essais sur piste pour améliorer la connaissance des risques. Le troisième aborde la question des usagers vulnérables, comme les conducteurs de taxi-moto en Côte d'Ivoire mais aussi celle des facteurs de vulnérabilité en situation de conduite ou des facteurs de risque comme la colère au volant.

In the field of the central core theory of social representations, research which has focused on the normative aspects is relatively recent as it dates back little more than ten years. The theory of conditionality which developed from research into the periphery of representation results from this. It is a particularly fruitful theory to explain “normative latitudes” and the behaviour accruing to them. One of the particularities of these works stresses the importance of linking the normative aspects with specific methods and/or analyses. In this paper, we will illustrate it via a specific tool developed in the field of traffic psychology: the Conditional Script Questionnaire (CSQ). This approach makes it possible to highlight the interactions between two systems of norms: the legal system and the social system. The implication of norms is fundamental in different processes already studied such as social influence or identity processes, and this article can be considered as an illustration of the place of norms in the field of social thinking.

The pedestrian is particularly exposed in the field of accidentology and has been the object of studies in diverse disciplines such as psychology or the safety of transportation. Working from models based on cognitive neurosciences and social cognition, this pilot study has for objective to investigate the perception of the pedestrian by the driver. It combines visual saliency measures taken from the recording of road scenes, with data resulting from the discourse retranscription of 11 drivers viewing these same scenes. To describe and understand the relations between these two types of data, the robust canonical correlation analysis was applied. This method brings to light the links between the overall visual environment and the drivers' verbatim. Although exploratory, these results show the link between the measures of saliency and the elements noticed by the drivers and can be interpreted as illustrating the complementarity of the processes bottom-up and top- down in perception. It can be observed that the pedestrian stands out when the driver is not evolving in a crowded environment and if the interaction with the former takes place in a pedestrian zone or in a courteous manner. Thus the drivers show themselves particularly sensitive to the legitimate/illegitimate character in the driving situation which seems to focus their attention and their feelings. Thus this analysis allows to emphasise on a multidimensional construct of the act of driving, integrating the vision, the social representations and the feelings of the drivers according to the contexts of driving.

ResumeLe football, qui est un sport d’equipe, se pratique comme une activite physique de loisir par des joueurs amateurs ou dans le cadre d’une activite plus «professionnelle» avec des joueurs d’elite. Ce sport tres populaire a plusieurs atouts, comme le fait d’integrer la diversite des styles ou de faire appel a une simplicite des regles (Defrance, 1995).Nous adadoptons ici une perspective psychosociologique en explorant le football en tant qu’objet de representation sociale (Moscovici, 1961/76) aupres de jeunes adultes amateurs issus d’un milieu social defavorise.Les resultats observes grâce a la methode d’associations libres et au questionnaire de caracterisation montrent qu’il existe bien une representation sociale du football. Si pour les jeunes amateurs cette representation s’articule autour des valeurs du sport collectif, celle attribuee aux parents est plus ancree dans le monde professionnel. De plus, cette etude met a jour un phenomene original concernant la zone « masquee » des representations s...

International audience; Research in the field of social representations and of norm conditionality has enabled the construction of specific tools such as the conditional script questionnaire (CSQ) and the use of various methods of analysis. The first aim of this study is to show the differences of conditionality between male and female drivers toward pedestrians. To test this hypothesis, a version of the CSQ has been fitted to the pedestrian. We show that conditionality toward the pedestrian is more significant for men in certain specific situations and we highlight that women are more aware of the vulnerability of pedestrians. The second stage is aimed at improving knowledge between conditionality and risk taking, by using Bayes’ theorem for the first time. It is demonstrated that a Bayesian network based on the CSQ can be built in order to model the perception of hazardous situations.

International audience

International audience; The question of nanotechnologies and societal concerns is a subject which has been developing for several years and constitutes an indicator of an evolution in the awareness of nanotechnologies as an inherent risk with social and ethical issues. Two disciplines in human and social sciences, social psychology and law, associate their fields of competence and their view of this new societal phenomenon. First an exploratory study of the social representation of nanotechnologies is conducted with Humanities and Social Sciences (HSS) students vs Exact Science (ES) students. Results highlight differences between these two groups. Then Law and the challenges to appropriate the innovations brought about by nanotechnology is discussed. In the light of these two disciplines the question of knowing if the human and social science are ready to deal with these new challenges is debated.

In a French town, the implementation of a street use code implies speed limits and the development of “30 km/h zones”. In order to see if this new regulation meets the inhabitants’ expectations, a study of the representation of the ideal neighborhood was carried out. This was conducted with a group of inhabitants (N = 48) and with a group of students mostly living outside the neighborhood (N = 363). The theoretical framework is that of the structural approach of social representations and the methodology used is the inductive method of free associations. For the inhabitants as well as for the students this representation is organized around the same central nucleus. Nevertheless, significant differences in the discourse concerning the lifestyles of the two groups leads to the conclusion that there exists a link between the ideal neighborhood and real life in the minds of the respondents.