COVID-19: knowledge and causal explanations developed by the Mexican population. Preliminary results.

Abstract

The objective of the work is to know, describe and analyze the knowledge and causal concepts developed by the Mexican population in the face of the COVID-19 pandemic. Preliminary results are presented in the framework of a broader investigation, aimed at inquiring about the collective perception of risk in such situation. A digital survey was designed and applied, and was answered by 963 people from a sample for convenience, initiated from the networks of the authors of the article. It was identified that the knowledge that the population manifests has to do predominantly with epidemiological (up to 67%) and clinical (52%) aspects of the pandemic. Regarding causality, the responses of the respondents were grouped into four explanatory models: moral (40.3%), deterministic (38.7%), agency (17.8%) and xenophobic (3.1%). The most important limitation of the study is that since it was a survey disseminated by digital media, there was little control over the sample. The work presents findings that contribute to the understanding of the population behaviors that the pandemic has caused in the Mexican population, and that can be inputs for the design of health promotion and risk communication strategies. Relevant findings are the high degree of penetration that biomedical discourse has in the explanatory knowledge and models of the surveyed population, as well as the importance of direct experience of a threatening situation in the perception of risk.