The social representation of money and the economic crisis: differences by life cycle

Changes taking place in the last years have required Italian citizens to revise habits and behaviors to adapt to an increasingly uncertain and volatile environment. In such a scenario, transformations may have occurred in the shared representations of two social objects, key to everyday life: money and the economic crisis. The present study aims to investigate how the vision of these two objects differs between social groups that are facing different moments of the life cycle, distinguishing between young adults in a phase of stabilization of their professional and family life, and more mature individuals, who can count on greater stability. From a methodological perspective, an online questionnaire was designed to investigate social representations about these two objects, using free association tasks. 305 responses were collected and then analyzed through prototype analysis and correspondence analysis. The results revealed differences in the two groups’ representations of money: a pragmatic view of money emerges for young people, while more mature individuals demonstrate to hold a more symbolic perspective. Regarding the economic crisis, although no significant differences in the representational structure are depicted, results highlight that younger people’s view of the crisis is markedly more pessimistic. These results are discussed considering the existing literature, offering insights about the practical and methodological implications, and providing directions for future research