Coronavirus: The Social Perception Of Risk

Public communication errors around the coronavirus because the social perception of risk

Governments, which in these days face the emergency from COVIID-19, lack the awareness that they need specialists in communication psychology. In other words, those who are able to prevent or report errors in istitutional communication, knowing how to evaluate the impact of the latter on the public opinion or on some particular targets, such as young people and adolescents.

Since the beginning of the coronavirus pandemic many communication errors have been reported, but others have never emerged. From the infographic of the virus diffusion maps to the public health councils for its containment, there is a lack of awareness of how distorted they are in their social reading. It's a problem of social perception of risk and bias that causes the spread of panic and disobedience to the application of public health regulations.

Let's take some examples: drawing red dots too big when the numbers were still small creates the wrong and overestimated perception of the victims. Communicating how to wash your hands should be done in the knowledge that receiving such basic advice causes may shame in some people. And shame wounds pride and we risk having people who maintain their previous habits of personal cleanliness.

The most striking case we saw yesterday in Italy with the many young people still crowding public places in Milan and other cities in the "red zones": that is, in circumstances far from the practice of health councils of social distance. The youth universe is often characterized by paths in border areas, where a thin, faint thread separates the conscious elaboration of risk from the almost magnetic attraction it exerts on young people and their conviction of immortality. This attraction to danger, typical of adolescence, causes dangerous behaviour that evidently cancels out the efforts of social distancing by government measures. Parents should be required to pay special attention to the awareness of their sons and daughters. A specific public communication addressed to them would be needed.

More generally, governments need to equip themselves with a task force to examine institutional communication around this emergency in order to increase and ensure its effectiveness.