BallaB (Body, Action, Language Lab), Department of Dynamic and Clinical Psychology, and Health Studies, Sapienza University of Rome, Rome, Italy.
University of Montpellier-LIFAM, Montpellier, France.
Sci Rep. 2021 Sep 15;11(1):18303. doi: 10.1038/s41598-021-97805-3.
Several studies have highlighted the flexible character of our conceptual system. However, less is known about the construction of meaning and the impact of novel concepts on the structuring of our conceptual space. We addressed these questions by collecting free listing data from Italian participants on a newly-and yet nowadays critical-introduced concept, i.e., COVID-19, during the first Italian lockdown. We also collected data for other five illness-related concepts. Our results show that COVID-19's representation is mostly couched in the emotional sphere, predominantly evoking fear-linked to both possible health-related concerns and social-emotional ones. In contrast with initial public debates we found that participants did not assimilate COVID-19 neither completely to severe illnesses (e.g., tumor) nor completely to mild illnesses (e.g., flu). Moreover, we also found that COVID-19 has shaped conceptual relations of other concepts in the illness domain, making certain features and associations more salient (e.g., flu-fear; disease-mask). Overall, our results show for the first time how a novel, real concept molds existing conceptual relations, testifying the malleability of our conceptual system.
已有多项研究强调了我们概念系统的灵活性。然而，对于意义的构建以及新概念对我们概念空间结构的影响，我们知之甚少。为了解决这些问题，我们在意大利第一次封锁期间，从意大利参与者那里收集了关于一个新的、但如今至关重要的概念（即 COVID-19）的自由列举数据。我们还收集了其他五个与疾病相关的概念的数据。我们的研究结果表明，COVID-19 的表现主要集中在情感领域，主要引发与可能的健康相关问题和社会情感问题相关的恐惧。与最初的公众讨论相反，我们发现参与者既没有将 COVID-19 完全等同于严重疾病（例如肿瘤），也没有完全等同于轻度疾病（例如流感）。此外，我们还发现 COVID-19 已经塑造了疾病领域中其他概念的概念关系，使某些特征和关联更加突出（例如，流感-恐惧；疾病-口罩）。总的来说，我们的研究结果首次表明，一个新的、真实的概念是如何塑造现有的概念关系的，证明了我们概念系统的灵活性。
