Discussion: Making Sense of Public Sensemaking Relative to the COVID-19 Crisis

Abstract

Disease outbreaks motivate human groups to engage in sensemaking efforts to give meaning to the event. These sensemaking processes often involve narratives framing where a disease comes from, how it spreads, and how to prevent and cure infections. At least four generic narratives are typically used as symbolic resources make sense of disease outbreaks: A medical science narrative and three lay narratives, i.e., (1) infectious disease as divine punishment, (2) infectious disease as caused by actions of outgroups (3) infectious disease as caused by evil elites. The contributions to this Special Issue are discussed in relation to this narrative sensemaking perspective.