Brazilians were more fearful of Covid-19 a year ago than today – Behup survey

RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL – At the start of the Covid-19 pandemic, the low number of cases, deaths and hospitalizations contrasted with the Brazilian population’s great fear of the coronavirus.

One year later, with almost 290,000 deaths caused by the disease and news reporting the worsening of the pandemic in the country, people’s inclination to protect and isolate themselves in an attempt to contain the spread of the virus has dropped. What is behind this change in sentiment?

Why, even in such a tragic scenario, do Brazilians seem to be numb to it all?

Psychoanalysis helps us understand the reason. According to Christian Dunker, psychoanalyst and professor at the University of São Paulo (USP), fear makes people want to act and attack the element causing this emotion.

Over time, it gives way to anguish, sadness, and conformism if the obstacle is not overcome. A feeling of numbness also arises, which can split into two aspects: helplessness faced with the reason for the fear, or indifference to the situation.

“The emotion right now with the covid-19 pandemic is similar when you look at the unemployment curve. When someone is unable to get a job for a long time, they simply give up. As a result, one group feels powerless to continue, lacking encouragement. Another group tries to cure their sadness, and does so at parties,” explains the psychoanalyst.

All this universe of emotions that Brazilians felt throughout a year of the covid-19 pandemic are also the focus of a survey by Behup, a startup that designs technologies to analyze and understand human behavior. The figures translate what we see on the streets and in psychoanalytic theory.

From March 2020 to March 2021, the feelings of Brazilians were analyzed on a weekly basis. The survey was conducted qualitatively, capturing the words that expressed the feelings of respondents when answering the question: “Thinking about the past week and all its events, what emotions and feelings did you experience? What did you feel?”

At the end of one year, over 200,000 answers were collected and computed by Behup. The results show that in March 2020, when the pandemic still registered less than 100 daily cases and a dozen deaths, the fear of the disease and the consequences that the pandemic imposed on Brazilians was much greater than today.

However, Brazil is currently experiencing the worst scenario of the coronavirus infection, faced with the greatest health and hospital collapse in the country’s history, according to a report by the Oswaldo Cruz Foundation. Last Tuesday, March 16th, Brazil reached the highest number of deaths recorded in 24 hours since the start of the pandemic, almost 3,000.

“The presence of fear is twice as high at the start of the pandemic than now. The interviews were conducted by audio, because it can better express everything that people are feeling. An interesting fact we noticed is that on special dates, like Valentine’s Day or Mother’s Day, optimism and happiness would increase, but soon the fear would return, most likely reflecting the post-pandemic feeling,” explains Matheus Caldas Vieira, Behup’s head of partnerships and projects.

The startup also cross-referenced information regarding the emotions of fear, worry, happiness, and sadness with the Consumer Confidence Index (ICC). The figures show that when fear and concern were higher, confidence in buying was lower. As time went by, the situation was reversed.

It was when fear and concern dropped that illegal gatherings and parties began to become more frequent, particularly among the younger population, between 18 and 30 years of age. Unmasked people on the streets throughout Brazil have also become common. The USP psychoanalysis professor says that in this age group behavior toward self-assertion, autonomy, and independence is very common.

“Youths are taking steps toward adulthood, then comes an order saying that they have to stay home. Information that lethality among young people is lower is also spread. There is a feeling that going to a party is not as risky, because although ‘I live with my parents, I just stay in my room.’ Youths only realize that this was an illusion when they infect their mothers and fathers with the coronavirus,” he says.

The impact of emergency aid in 2020 is also included in Behup’s survey. In mid-May, the index measuring concern with employment and income peaked, but began to rapidly drop after the emergency aid began to be paid in late May.

Despite the high unemployment rate in Brazil, the program’s reach – about 66 million people directly received the benefit – succeeded in reducing the anxiety of a large part of the population at the time.

Interrupted in late 2020, president Jair Bolsonaro on Thursday, March 18th, signed the provisional measure with the rules for a new round of emergency aid, but without specifically detailing the amounts and groups that will benefit. Payments should start in April.

Numb population

Psychoanalyst Christian Dunker explains that for people in home office, sadness leads to a moment of exhaustion. “These people need to work out their anguish, their mourning, and their fear. These exhausted individuals may have withdrawal behaviors, they go into a kind of inertia,” he says.

Nurse Raquelly Lopes, 27, is not on the Covid-19 care front line, and yet she had the disease last year. “Fear is the word that best sums up the moment I found myself in in March 2020. I had Covid-19 and unfortunately my uncle passed away due to complications from the disease. At that time, my family and I were terrified. The feeling that I might get infected returned,” she says.

The return of concern about becoming infected is also felt by Mariana Medeiros, 36, an administrator living in the city of São Paulo. For her, the main point is the vaccination rate, which is still too slow. The country has administered at least the first dose to over 9.6 million people, the equivalent to 4.5% of the population. Despite having a tradition of large immunization campaigns, Brazil is behind countries like the United States, Israel, Chile, and the United Kingdom.

“From the beginning I was always very afraid. It was not a simple disease, and easy to solve. You get lost, you don’t know where to go. More and more it is desperation kicking in, the fear, the concern is even greater than in the beginning. There is also indecision. I don’t see an improvement in the short-term,” she says.

Juan Florian, 31, is Colombian, but has been living in Brazil since 2014. At the start of the pandemic he was in Santa Catarina, and has moved twice during this time, once to Paraná and another time to Guarulhos, in greater São Paulo, where he now lives.

“The beginning was a very difficult time, but I didn’t think it would be this bad. I didn’t see it as a minor flu, but I always respected the safety measures, like wearing a mask. Then I realized how serious the situation was. I had stopped smoking, then I started again, I started drinking more at home. Now my feeling is one of acceptance, after the mourning, and anger,” he says.

Behup startup

Behup is a Brazilian startup focused on Data Intelligence, which creates and uses technologies capable of collecting and analyzing quality data to uncover and understand human behavior.

These technologies unite data science, social sciences and neuroscience and are able to decipher behaviors, emotions and opinions combining data with artificial intelligence, always prioritizing people’s privacy.

Source: Exame