INTERVIEW
Fear, anger, and hope. The emotions of the French were analyzed during confinement as part of a study, to draw up a map of reactions to the epidemic of new coronavirus. Madeleine Hamel, project manager and author of the study by the foundation for political innovation "Covid-19 cartography of emotions in France" in analysis of the results, Sunday on Europe 1. "Over the period of confinement which was measured from March 24-25 to May 8-10, we have levels of anger that are very high, higher than the levels of fear or hope, "she said.
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Hope stagnates, fear diminishes, anger remains
"If we look in terms of trend and evolution, the fear begins at fairly high levels and decreases throughout the period, we have a hope which surreptitiously decreases in mid-April and then rises but which remains more or less at stagnant levels, and we have this anger which remains at rather high levels, "she continues. "We are around 46.6% on average on May 8-10. And it is not weakening."
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The apprehension of the reactions of the French by region gives very different, and sometimes surprising, results. "We have compared the regions, as well as the number of hospitalizations in them. And what we observe is that regions like Île-de-France or Grand Est, which are the most affected, are not those in which we observe the highest level of fear or anger. We have regions that are part of regions little affected, such as Occitania or the Pays de la Loire, which show levels of very high anxiety and anger, "explains Madeleine Hamel.
An apprehension of the consequences of the epidemic?
The study also points to a cautious optimism among the French. First in continuous decline from March 24-25 to April 30 - from 36.7% to 29.9% - the proportion of optimists rose on the eve of deconfinement, to return to a level similar to that at the beginning of the period . Brittany is an exception in this respect. It is the only region where, at the start of the Covid-19 crisis, the proportion of respondents feeling hopeful when they think about the evolution of the coronavirus crisis is higher (43.6%) than that feeling fear (43%) or anger (37%).
The region also stands out for the low proportion of inhabitants who say they feel a sense of anger: 39.2% compared to 46.6% for all of the Regions studied. If these figures can be explained by the low hospitalization rate in Brittany, this is also the case in Occitanie, where, despite everything, the anger is particularly strong.
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Among the explanations for this anger, the researcher raises several hypotheses, which cannot be verified by her study. In Occitania, anger could be a manifestation of the population's apprehension at the consequences of the coronavirus. In fact, in the region, the economic fabric is closely linked with the sector of the aeronautical industry, largely affected by the epidemic. More generally, the feeling of anger could also be linked to frustration, weariness of confinement and deconfinement measures, perceived as too late for these less affected regions.