site.btaYoung People Feel Hardest Current Crisis - Poll

April 3 (BTA) - An opinion poll conducted by a team of the Department of Philosophy of the Sofia University has revealed that irrespective of the extraordinary situation caused by the coronavirus, the Bulgarians do not perceive it as strongly stressful. The poll, conducted on-line among 1,504 respondents in Sofia and the country in March 17-22, showed that at the early stage of the coronavirus developments, positive feelings, humour and irony dominated. The people up to 29 years of age experienced the highest levels of negative feelings - grief, anxiety and panic. Women had higher levels of stress than men.

In the threatening situation, the most frequent answer of respondents (52.4 per cent) was that they captured themselves thinking about things they need to finish up. Forty-two per cent felt very angry and stressed on many occasions. However, the difficulties made people cope successfully with minor problems and everyday cares - 70.5 per cent said that very often they solve such problems more easily. Sixty-three per cent felt confident in their own capabilities to handle by themselves their personal problems. Optimism, humaneness and inspiration were higher in the country than in Sofia, where homour and irony were the most common means of addressing the situation.

Forty-one per cent think that the coronavirus pandemic is the result of a crisis provoked by financial institutions in a bid to redistribute resources and markets. Forty per cent think that the pandemic is an experiment with a new biological weapon. A total of 73.2 per cent of the respondents expect a global economic and financial crash in the future, 71.5 per cent expect deep changes in politics and governance, 68.3 per cent expect a change in human values, while nearly 66 per cent think that people will become more careful of their lifestyles and health.

The results of the poll are published in the April 3 issue of the Sega weekly. ZH

/СН/