Social Representations of the War in Italy during the Russia/Ukraine Conflict

Abstract

Social representations of the war, anchored in historical experience and cultural values, play a motivational role in justifying collective behavior. Following Russia’s 2022 invasion of Ukraine, the research delves into the meanings associated with war through a social representation approach. Employing Doise’s sociodynamic approach, researchers identify the semantic field linked with war and analyze its organizing principles, revealing the variability of representations. In total, 313 Italian participants (female = 241, 75.4%; age range = 18–74) completed a questionnaire featuring a free association task with the word “war”, providing demographic and political and religious orientation data. Lexical correspondence analysis, utilizing Spad-t software, highlights three polarized themes: the emotional dimension aroused by war, media-conveyed imagery, and the underlying causes of conflict. The social anchoring analysis projects variables such as gender and political orientation onto a factorial plane. Finally, cluster analysis dissects psychological anchoring, identifying four distinct groups characterized by their descriptions of war: effects, reasons, emotions, and images. Theoretical and practical implications are discussed.

Keywords

• social representation
• war
• psychological anchoring
• social anchoring
• Russia
• Ukraine