In the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic (between 26 March and 2 April 2020), we analysed (n = 1144) the social representations of the coronavirus and the differentiated perceptions according to the origins attributed to the appearance of the virus (Human vs Non-Human and Intentional vs Unintentional) in a French population. The results show that the social representation is organized around five potentially central descriptive, anxiety-provoking and globally negative elements. But death and contagion are the only stable and structuring elements. The other elements vary according to the reason attributed to the object of fear. Depending on how individuals attribute the origin of the virus, social representations of it vary not only in terms of their content but also in terms of their structure. These results indicate how important it is to consider the perceptions that individuals share about the human (vs non-human) and intentional (vs unintentional) origin of an object of fear in the analysis of their representation of that object.

在 COVID-19 大流行期间（2020 年 3 月 26 日至 4 月 2 日），我们分析了 ( n = 1144) 冠状病毒的社会表征以及根据归因于病毒出现的起源（人类与非人类以及有意与无意）在法国人群中的不同看法。结果表明，社会表征围绕五个潜在的核心描述性、引发焦虑和全球负面因素进行组织。但死亡和传染是唯一稳定和结构化的因素。其他要素根据归因于恐惧对象的原因而有所不同。根据个人如何归因于病毒的起源，它的社会表征不仅在内容上而且在结构上都有所不同。