Mental representation of economic crisis in Italian and Swiss samples

The content and structure of mental representation of economic crises were studied and the flexibility of the structure in different social contexts w as tested. Italian and Swiss samples (Total N = 98) were compared with resp ect to their judgements as to how a series of concrete examples of events r epresenting abstract indicators were relevant symptoms of economic crisis. Mental representations were derived using a cluster procedure. results show ed that he relevance of the indicators varied as a function of national con text. The growth of unemployment was judged to be by far the most important symptom of an economic crisis but the Swiss sample judged bankruptcies as more symptomatic than Italians who considered inflation, raw material price s and external accounts to be more relevant. A different clustering structu re was found for the two samples: locations of unemployment and gross domes tic indicators were the main differences in representations.