COVID-19 Pandemic and Religious Attributions. An Exploratory Study in Italy

In 2020, Italy saw over 2 million cases of the SARS-CoV-2 virus, with fatalities surpassing 105,000. The pandemic’s scale and the stringent countermeasures were unparalleled, significantly impacting the psychological, social, and economic aspects of people’s lives. A notable consequence of such a dire and unforeseen event is the initiation of a cause-seeking process among individuals. This exploratory study delves into the investigation of causes conducted by people amid the ongoing climate of uncertainty. It specifically examines religious explanations for potential contagion, aiming for both theoretical advancement and practical application—to mitigate the outbreak’s spread. The study involved 575 participants, exploring the connection between their reported causal attributions and characteristics, such as levels of religiosity. The primary findings reveal that religious explanations for the virus’s cause were infrequently cited, even among those who deem religion a central part of their lives. The discussion includes potential reasons for this, such as the contagion’s “democratic” spread, the absence of gratification from feeling unique, and the perception of controllability over the contagion due to excessive information exposure.