First Analyses

Data

After collecting our data, we proceded to our first analyses, question by question. Those analyses are an important basis for our answer to the reasearch question, when confronted to our bibliography.

Question 1: Young international students age average – 19.3 years old. Old mentonnese age average – 77.8 years old.

Question 2: We didn’t particularly know what to expect; only that young people would probably be well informed about the threat it presented, and old people be concerned because they are at risk. Our results showed that most people considered it to be a serious threat; there was no generational difference on this topic, thus the disparity doesn’t affect this aspect of beliefs about this virus. 

Question 3: We expected elderly to be more reluctant to implement necessary measures, and young people to be more keen to say the measures are efficient. We found that for both demographics, an overwhelming majority of people thought the measures are effective; however, we did have individuals in both generations with a nuanced view questioning the effectiveness of the lockdown. (interesting to see nevertheless, several elederly subjects removed or wore their masks halfway down during interviews)

Question 4: We expected young people to be critical of restrictions on political freedoms, and old people to feel less concerned by the debate. In both groups about the same proportion of people didn’t think the pandemic was being used by governments. The idea that it was is more prevalent among young people who gave nuanced answers, mentioning the possibility that this would depend according to different countries, offering an international outlook. Among elder people who people who supported it, there was either more uncertainty or unjustified positions. 

Question 5: We expected young people to confirm its existence, while perhaps elderly people would be more divided on the question. All of the young people interviewed confirmed it, will only one elder subject didn’t believe it existed (but they contradicted themselves a lot). 

Question 6: We expected the younger generation to position itself on the natural occurrence side, while more elder people would be likely to support the idea it was artificially created. Indeed a majority of young group said it was natural; however to our surprise one subject maintained it was artificial, another suggested a modified natural virus, and finally there was a small margin of uncertain people. As for the old group, less people compared to the young believed it was natural: several advanced it was linked to a laboratory, with several racist comments. 

Question 7: We believed the older demographic would be more against vaccines on a basis of principle and younger demographic to be more open to them. Most young people would undergo it, while a very small number of elderlies would trust it; more old people are radically opposed, although some for practical reasons than because they don’t particularly trust it. An approximately equal minority said they would rather wait to see effects on others and it seemed safe. 

Question 8: The debate being specifically French, we thought old local group would be more involved and polarised rather than international profiles, and overall more inclined to thinking it could be a solutio. Effectively, locals were almost all aware of what this drug was, contrary to young international. Indeed more people did believe it was a remedy. 

Question 9: We expected older people to be more receptive to conspiracy theory explanations because of a less rigorous truth finding process, while young people to be less receptive to conspiracy theories as realistic explanations because their exposure to them on social media could make them more critical. Our research showed that  old people rejected conspiracy theory all together, at a greater level than young people.However, young people are more nuanced on the topic, they appear more critical on the conspiracy theory explanations,majority of them  believing some of those theories or recognised the fact that some could be valid whilst other are clearly fabrications and products of ignorance. As for older people, the were particularly reactive to the label of conspiracy theory, thus it is more difficult to evaluate their true exposure to conspiracy theory.  They could be less aware of conspiracy theories as a concept but more likely to believe them as realistic explanation 

Question 10: We thought that the old demographic wouldn’t have strong opinions whilst young people would be critical of people supporting conspiracy theories. Indeed, young people were more critical of them but a small number of them nuanced that these people were seeking alternative answers to phenomena. On the other hand, older people were less critical and mostly argued that everyone could have their opinions. 

Question 11: We were expecting that young people would have a higher level of trust in scientists, compared to old people. Our research showed that indeed, young people have a higher trust in scientists compared to old people, a majority of them has a high trust (8to10) whereas a minority of old people confess having a high level of trust. Furthermore, young people’s opinion turned out to be more polarized than old local’s opinions, with a great majority of old people confessing having a ‘medium’ trust (from 4 to 7) and a minority of young internationals having no trust in scientists, trend that does not appear amongst the old locals. 

Quesiton 12: We thought young political science students would have more distance with the French government than the elder group. Surprisingly a slightly higher proportion of students have high levels of trust, and the same proportions in both groups presented a medium level. We didn’t observe particular polarisation. 

Question 13: We believed that due to an awareness around the present era of misinformation and the importance of fact checking processes, the young group would be moderate in their levels of certainty of their answers, allowing for a margin of error. On the other hand we estimated that old people would hold stronger beliefs. Contrarily to what we thought, most students held very high levels of certainty regarding their previous answers. The older group however was equally spread among medium and high levels of certainty. This trend towards the elder generation being less sure of their answers seemed more incoherent in relation to previous answers; we concluded that they affirm their beliefs but are more reluctant to back up or justify them. This can be explained by a lesser possibility to fact-check or cross-reference than young people accessing Internet, involved in debates online and exposed to more information and thus developing a more solid truth-finding process. 

Question 14: We expected old people to use TV as main source of information and be present on social media mostly through whatsapp groups and emails. As for the young people, we expected a majority of them using social media and press on the internet. Our research showed that old people had no exposure at all to social media for information purposes and that most of them used TV and newspapers as a source of information. Young people’s source of information is more diverse, most of them use social media and a significant part gets information from the press. The  Thus, the idea that old people could be more subject to misinformation can be explained by other variables than only the type of source. First, the political orientation of the source and its reliability as a newspaper or TV channel combined with the ability to question and deepen their research of the information presented, beyond established beliefs. 

Question 15: We believed old people would support their strong beliefs with a high level of confidence towards the sources they use, and younger generations to be more critical with regard to different types of sources. Our study showed similarly to the results on levels of certainty for their own answers, that young people have high confidence in their privileged sources, while some also nuanced that they keep a certain distance from information on social media. On the other hand, the older group were in majority presenting medium levels of confidence in their chosen sources, revealing again a certain incoherence between beliefs and value given to sources of information. 

Question 16: We expected that the press and radio would be viewed as most reliable in both groups, but with a divergence on television with the older groups trusting it more. Indeed, across both generations press is seen as most reliable, and radio is mentioned by the older group. Younger people were then divided between those who favour social media and those who rely on press agencies and scientific sources. Meanwhile, the elder group confirmed our estimation on television but also presented an overall very high distrust of social media. 

Question 17: We expected political science students to necessarily be confronted and seek out different opinions, whilst elderly locals would be in social circles that entertain similar beliefs. We thought the young group to be involved in online discussions in general and old local to discuss their opinions in person. Our inquiry showed that across generations, people tend to have discussion with people with different opinions, although the students seem to seek them out more. Moreover, there is also a trend to discuss in person for both, with a few students who engage online. The results confirmed our estimations to some extent. 

Question 18: no particular expectations – more for purpose of comparison with other similar results in both generations, majority in medium and the rest in high levels of trust in their social circle. This could suggest people rely more heavily on their own truth-finding processes. 

Question 19: We thought older group would be very right-wing, while students would be evenly spread along the spectrum without particularly extreme positions. Our inquiry confirmed that the older group would be more present in the right-wing category, but almost half also claimed to have stopped positioning themselves in politics. The young demographic was relatively evenly spread, but with a higher proportions in the center and left. This confirmed our predicted correlation between generational political inclinations, but we also noted that the locals feel less concerned by politics altogether than the students. Furthermore the old locals affiliating themselves in the right commented several times that it was out of tradition, being educated that way… 

Question 20: Our expectation on political parties included support towards right or far right parties among locals, and more varied responses from international students. The locals showed a mixture of support and great criticism for Macron’s REM, a supporter of the RN, while others referred to old conservative parties and politicians; several commented that current political parties in France aren’t satisfactory. The young students showed highest support for REM, then evenly divided between left-wing parties in their home countries and absence of party affiliation. 

Our general conclusions and analyses are to be read in the entry « Analysis & Conclusions » of our website.

Inquiry for Digital Culture Class

D’Alfonso Gaia

Goffaux Elza

Hussain Shah Zain

Stedman Anita