title: Understanding an Ebola outbreak: Social representations of emerging infectious diseases.
abstract: This study examined the collective image of the 2014-2015 Ebola outbreak, to understand how people incorporate this epidemic in their everyday thinking. A free association exercise elicited by Ebola was answered by 294 people from Spain and the content was analysed using Alceste software. First, results showed that Ebola was represented as inherently African. Second, it was also depicted as a global threat creating fear. People also felt anger, and they blamed political authorities and the mass media for the failure to manage this crisis. Finally, this research underlines the importance of the social representations to understand how current outbreaks are cognitively represented and emotionally faced as a key factor to appropriately manage future epidemics.
authors.affiliation: The University of the Basque Country UPV/EHU, Spain.
authors.forename: Nahia
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Idoiaga Mondragon
authors.affiliation: The University of the Basque Country UPV/EHU, Spain.
authors.forename: Lorena
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Gil de Montes
authors.affiliation: The University of the Basque Country UPV/EHU, Spain.
authors.forename: Jose
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Valencia
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D021821:Communicable Diseases, Emerging / Q000523:psychology*; D004196:Disease Outbreaks; D005260:Female; D007722:Health Knowledge, Attitudes, Practice / Q000208:ethnology*; D019142:Hemorrhagic Fever, Ebola / Q000523:psychology*; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D013030:Spain / Q000208:ethnology; D055815:Young Adult
keywords: Ebola; emerging infectious diseases; emotions; risk; social representations