In the two studies presented here, we explore the significance of word class for concreteness and imageability in human and computationally obtained ratings. The observed correlations in the CPD indicate correspondences between psycholinguistic measures expected from the literature. Word classes exhibit differences in subjective frequency, age of acquisition, concreteness and imageability, with significant differences between nouns, verbs, adjectives and adverbs. In the computational study which focused on concreteness and imageability, concreteness obtained higher correlations with human ratings than imageability, and the system underpredicted the concreteness of nouns, and overpredicted the concreteness of adjectives and adverbs. Overall, this suggests that word class contains schematic conceptual and distributional information. Schematic conceptual content seems to be more significant in human ratings of concreteness and less significant in computationally obtained ratings, where distributional information seems to play a more significant role. This suggests that word class differences should be theoretically explored.Psycholinguistic databases containing ratings of concreteness, imageability, age of acquisition, and subjective frequency are used in psycholinguistic and neurolinguistic studies which require words as stimuli. Linguistic characteristics  are frequently coded, but word class is seldom systematically treated, although there are indications of its significance for imageability and concreteness. This paper presents the Croatian Psycholinguistic Database , containing 6000 Croatian nouns, verbs, adjectives and adverbs, rated for concreteness, imageability, age of acquisition, and subjective frequency. Moreover, we present computationally obtained extrapolations of concreteness and imageability to the remainder of the Croatian lexicon (available at:  Psycholinguistic databases containing human ratings of characteristics such as concreteness, imageability, age of acquisition, and subjective frequency are routinely used in a variety of psycholinguistic and neurolinguistic studies which require words as stimuli  are often based on subjective ratings which have been found to correlate with objective measures of AoA , will thus have similar vector values and appear as close in the spatial representation of that particular corpus. What is even more interesting for our work, the N values of the resulting n-dimensional vectors were proven to encode various linguistic properties of words.In machine learning studies, word embeddings are often used. Word embeddings are numerical representations of words, usually in the form of n-dimensional vectors. Considering that vectors can mathematically be represented as positions in an n-dimensional Cartesian space, every word-related vector assigns a unique “address” in space to every word. Word vectors are calculated using the positions of words within large language corpora, based on their neighboring words and in line with observations first made by Harris , and latThere have been warnings that extrapolation may create semantic artifacts absent from the human ratings for AoA, concreteness and affective variables, even if correlations are high  entities defined in time and being diffuse in space  from the object (table). Adverbs are more varied than adjectives, and may refer to the spatial or temporal domain, as well as various other circumstances .This last view hinges on treating word class and other grammatical information as meaningful, which is in line with cognitive linguistic treatments . Finally, adjectives and adverbs have the grammatical valence of exactly 1, because the way they describe qualities and circumstances requires a noun/verb, respectively, whose quality/circumstance is realized. In this sense, adverbs are further removed from adjectives, because they work with verbs which have their separate grammatical valence of at least 1.This information is also related to grammatical valence as conceptually defined by Croft . GrammatThese explanations shed new light on the three leading models that have been developed to account for the processing differences of concrete and high-imageable words on the one hand, and abstract and low-imageable words on the other: the context availability theory  and the University of Rijeka . No monetary compensation was offered, but some students were awarded class credit for their participation. The mean age of the participants was 21.18 (SD = 2.61), and their age range was 18–50. There were 78.45% females and 21.55% of males. Most participants (69.32%) reported speaking two or more foreign languages . Most participants (79.67%) reported that they spent between 1 and 4 hours reading per day on average. Every word was rated by an average of 30 participants (see Table hrast “oak”) and groups of people (e.g. razred “class”) were marked as inanimate, whereas supernatural, anthropomorphic and dead entities as animate , based on the differences in morphological marking of masculine nouns. Preliminary results of the first round of data collection, focusing on the dimensions of concreteness and imageability and testing the dual-coding theory, were published in Croatian  to control for the method (order) effect. The participants rated two variables on the same sheet (concreteness and subjective frequency or imageability and AoA).tuljan “seal”, plivati “to swim”, slan “salty”; abstractness: pravda “justice”, morati “to have to”, poetski “poetic”; high imageability: kuća “house”, grmjeti “to thunder”; low imageability: nedosljedan “inconsistent”, smjeti “be allowed to”, aspekt “aspect”).The instructions see  were forSubjective frequency was operationalized using a Likert scale, where the participants were asked to report how frequently they encounter a word: almost never (1), once a year (2), once a month (3), once a week or (4) once/several times a day (5). AoA was defined as “understanding the meaning of a word at a certain age”, so the participants were asked to estimate the age at which they could say they knew the meaning of a word. Such a continuous measure of AoA correlates highly (above .80) with more frequently used Likert-like rating-scale measures, where the participants have to mark a number indicating an age range (defined in advance by researchers) in which they acquired a word  for the psycholinguistic variables . Moreover, linguistic characteristics of each word are also coded, i.e. word length in number of characters, word class , animacy and gender for nouns and raw frequency in the hrWaC corpus. Currently, the rated words appear only in Croatian, but English translations will be provided by the end of the project.M = .88) for concreteness, from .81 to .88 (M = .85) for imageability, from .89 to .93 (M = .91) for AoA, and from .87 to .90 (M = .89) for subjective frequency. Moreover, there were no significant correlations between the place on the list and ratings for any of the variables, except for imageability ratings on list A and AoA ratings on list B which were both very small at .04 (p < .01). This corroborates the reliability and validity of the collected ratings.The reliability of the ratings for concreteness, imageability, AoA and subjective frequency was calculated by randomly dividing the participants into two subgroups of equal size and computing the correlation between averaged estimation by item. The reliability indexes were calculated on 5000 different randomizations of the participants. The obtained split-half correlations ranged from .86 to .90 . The correlation for concreteness with Ćoso et al. .Results of ANOVAs revealed significant differences between word classes in all the psycholinguistic word features, as well as in word length (p < .001) in all pairs of word classes in mean concreteness ratings, with nouns being rated as the most concrete, followed by verbs (nouns – verbs Cohen’s d = 0.51), adjectives (verbs – adjectives Cohen’s d = 0.42), and finally, adverbs as the most abstract words (adjectives – adverbs Cohen’s d = 0.38). The same pattern was observed for imageability, with nouns rated as the most imageable, followed by verbs (nouns – verbs Cohen’s d = 0.36), adjectives (verbs – adjectives Cohen’s d = 0.31), and finally, adverbs as the least imageable words (adjectives – adverbs Cohen’s d = 0.41).Post hoc Bonferroni tests revealed a statistically significant difference (p < .001) in subjective frequency except for the difference between nouns and adjectives (p = .052). Adverbs were rated as the most frequent, followed by verbs (adverbs – verbs Cohen’s d = 0.65), and nouns and adjectives as the least frequent (verbs – nouns Cohen’s d = 0.29). The same pattern was observed for the AoA. The Bonferroni test indicated a statistically significant difference (p < .001) in all pairs of word classes, except for the difference between adverbs and verbs (p = .205). Adverbs and verbs were rated as the earliest acquired words, followed by nouns (verbs – nouns Cohen’s d = 0.23), and adjectives as acquired the latest (nouns – adjectives Cohen’s d = 0.20) (see Table p < .001). The shortest word class—adverbs—were shorter than nouns (Cohen’s d = 0.27), nouns were shorter than adjectives (Cohen’s d = 0.41), and finally, adjectives were shorter than the longest word class—verbs (Cohen’s d = 0.23). We report effect sizes for the smallest differences obtained in the post hoc tests .As for subjective frequency and AoA, a Bonferroni test indicated that all pairs of word classes differed statistically significantly , novčić “coin” , normalizacija “normalization”  and neshvatljiv “incomprehensible” . However, given the .819 correlation, the CPD also contains words that diverge from this pattern exhibiting high concreteness and low imageability, e.g. primatelj “recipient” , kositar “tin” , and low concreteness and high imageability, e.g. mišljenje “opinion” , obećanje “promise” . Reflecting the high association between imageability and concreteness, the pattern of relations of the two variables with other word features was similar. Thus, words rated as more concrete and more imageable tended to be estimated as acquired at a younger age, as being subjectively and objectively more frequent, and as being shorter. AoA had the highest correlation with subjective frequency, suggesting that words reported to be acquired at a younger age also tended to be rated as more subjectively frequent. Although a lower correlation was obtained between AoA and objective frequency, it reveals that words estimated as being acquired at a younger age are objectively more frequent than those reported to be acquired at an older age. Furthermore, words rated as being acquired at a younger age tended to be shorter than those rated as being acquired at an older age. In addition to the mentioned correlations between subjective frequency and the psycholinguistic variables, subjective frequency had a high positive correlation with objective frequency, and a low negative correlation with word length. Finally, the two linguistic word features correlated moderately negatively: words which are objectively more frequent tend to be shorter. Pearson correlations calculated separately in the subsamples of the four word classes showed that the overall pattern and the magnitude of associations between the word features were very similar across the four word classes.Pearson correlations between all word features included in the CPD, calculated for all 6000 words, are presented in Fig. The values of all word features are comparable to values available in databases for other languages cited earlier. AoA means in our study may seem somewhat higher than those obtained in other studies using a continuous AoA measure for French , with all post hoc differences significant (p < .001), except for the difference between nouns and adjectives. This indicates that an explanation based on word class-related factors may be worth exploring, although the overall effect size of word class on AoA is small.All the correlations obtained in the data follow the expected pattern found in previous studies and databases  to which extent we can extrapolate concreteness and imageability ratings in our lexicon of 6000 entries to the remainder of the Croatian lexicon and (2) to extend the existing body of research on extrapolation of psycholinguistic variables by focusing on (a) variation between word classes and (b) the interaction between concreteness and imageability.Extrapolations in this work were performed by using word embeddings as explanatory variables and one of the two variables, concreteness or imageability, as response variable. In line with Ljubešić et al. , we usedDifferent to our previous work , rs =.87 (MRC) and rs = .89 (BWK), whereas they were rs = .68 (MEGAHR) and rs = .80 (MRC) for imageability. A larger dataset seems to facilitate machine learning, which is why English extrapolations are better than Croatian. The correlation for concreteness for the MRC database for our model is slightly better than the one published by Hollis et al. , and in the case of MRC . Differences in predicting concreteness and imageability between MEGAHR and MRC are also significant .Concreteness predictions correlate with human predictions better than predictions for imageability, and the difference between them is significant, both in the case of MEGAHR  with a clear cline between them. The results for imageability show the strongest correlation for nouns (r = .68), and weaker correlations for the other word classes .We performed a separate evaluation of the models trained and evaluated on the MEGAHR dataset, by separating the predictions by word class. The results show that the overall correlations for concreteness for nouns are stronger than those for verbs, adjectives and adverbs (r = .93) than they are in human ratings (r = .82). We then compared the direction of the predictions for a set of 5301 nouns, verbs, adjectives and adverbs. The sample was obtained by removing the training set and manually discarding any obvious errors in the predicted data . We subtracted the predicted concreteness or imageability mean ratings from the human-rated concreteness or imageability mean ratings separately for each variable, obtaining a score that shows the direction of the prediction. Negative scores indicate that the mean of the predicted value is greater than the mean of the human rating; i.e. in the case of negative scores, extrapolated values are overpredicted in relation to human ratings. Positive scores represent underprediction by machine learning. We performed an ANOVA on the means to test for word class differences.Finally, we compared concreteness and imageability extrapolations with human ratings for all the word classes. The results show that the overall correlations between concreteness and imageability are higher in machine predictions . Post hoc Bonferroni tests revealed that all pairs of word classes except for nouns and verbs differed statistically significantly (p < .001), with nouns being consistently underpredicted, and adjectives and adverbs consistently overpredicted . The results for imageability also showed a significant difference between word classes, but the effect size was minimal .The results for concreteness showed a significant difference between word classes, with a small effect size (imagine comes to mind).Concreteness was easier to predict than imageability, which may mean that concreteness—i.e. availability to the senses—is captured more easily using distributional data. Notionally, concreteness is verifiable by our senses; it refers to entities that are present in our environment and is textually related to a number of lexical items . In contrast, imageability is an “internal” (“one’s minds’ eye”) capacity of a human being to invoke a mental image. The mental image is based on the knowledge of an external stimulus; however, invoking a mental image makes sense only if the stimulus is not present (you do not need to imagine a desk or a foul smell when you can see it or smell it). Imageability is not as clearly related to a number of basic and readily available lexical items . In the remaining cases, distributional evidence may not be sufficient. This is evident from a comparison of predictions of concreteness and imageability for words that participants rated as abstract and highly imageable. A total of 98 such words, with concreteness rated below 2.5 and imageability above 3.5, were found in our set (some of them mentioned in the first study). Among them, imageability was predicted within .5 of the mean of the human rating in four cases, and in 94 cases going beyond this. In contrast, in the same set, concreteness was predicted within .5 of the mean of the human rating in 59 cases, with the remaining 39 cases going beyond the arbitrary .5 limit. This suggests that distributional evidence works better for concreteness than for imageability. This is in line with Crossley et al.’s  study whThe results of the human rating study showed expected correlations between psycholinguistic variables, as well as an effect of word class on the psycholinguistic variables of AoA, subjective frequency, concreteness and imageability. For concreteness and imageability, there was a cline nouns > verbs > adjectives > adverbs. In the machine learning study, we focused on concreteness and imageability and obtained results which, in the whole sample, correlated with human predictions. However, the size of the correlations across word classes followed the same cline. Finally, a similar cline was obtained for the direction of the predictions for concreteness. The system underpredicted the concreteness of nouns, and overpredicted the concreteness of adjectives and adverbs. Imageability predictions followed suit, but the effect size was minimal.These results are in line with the conceptual definition of word classes given in the introduction, which suggests that word class should be taken as a shorthand for semantic and distributional characteristics, at least within a single language. Simply put, nouns typically denote objects, verbs denote relations between objects, and adjectives and adverbs denote qualities and external characteristics. There is a clear conceptual decrease in concreteness and imageability: nouns are most highly concrete and imageable because they are conceptually related to entities that are less diffuse and have a spatial basis, and the decrease in the spatial basis of verbs, adjectives and adverbs, and their increasingly relational nature leads to lower concreteness and imageability. In other words, word class adds a schematic conceptual frame to the lexical meaning of words.This is also visible from the differences in the direction of the prediction for concreteness in the machine learning experiment, where this “conceptual frame” seems to be more significant for humans than when using machine learning based on collocational evidence. It seems that, at least for some nouns, humans give more weight to the conceptual factor of “nouniness” (i.e. thing-like representation) rather than to distributional evidence. By the same token, people see some adjectives and adverbs as more diffuse and hence less concrete, perhaps because adjectives and adverbs require conceptual separation of the quality from the object it describes. In contrast, relying on collocational evidence (where no such separation occurs), the system predicts them as more concrete than humans.Regarding the theoretical significance of word class for the context availability theory, the dual-coding theory and grounding theories, it seems that all of them should incorporate grammatical information as part of their program. It seems that various flavors of grounding theories  convincingly, so that the artifacts are not a result of using only one type of evidence (and the wrong kind of evidence at that). Characteristics other than imageability that require more than just textual evidence seem to include emotional valence, arousal and dominance . Given the role of word class in this work, and the relation between affective variables and concreteness and imageability (Kousta et al.,


It is evident, in the face of the COVID-19 pandemic that has physicians confronting death and dying at unprecedented levels along with growing data suggesting that physicians who care for dying patients face complex emotional, psychological and behavioural effects, that there is a need for their better understanding and the implementation of supportive measures. Taking into account data positing that effects of caring for dying patients may impact a physician’s concept of personhood, or “what makes you, ‘you’”, we adopt Radha Krishna’s Ring Theory of Personhood (RToP) to scrutinise the experiences of physicians working in intensive care units (ICU) using a fictional scenario that was inspired by real events. The impact of death and dying, its catalysts, internal constituents, external factors, dyssynchrony, and buffers, specific to ICU physicians, were identified and explored. Such a framework allows for ramifications to be considered holistically and facilitates the curation of strategies for conflict resolution. This evaluation of the RToP acknowledges the experience and wide-ranging effects it has on ICU physicians. As such, our findings provide insight into their specific needs and highlight the importance of support on a personal and organisational level. Although further research needs to be conducted, the RToP could serve as the basis for a longitudinal assessment tool supported by the use of portfolios or mentorship due to their provision of personalised, appropriate, specific, timely, accessible and long-term support.  The COVID-19 pandemic has seen medical professionals taking to social media sites to share their knowledge and experiences with dying patients Ouyang . Not onlIndeed, so profound have these effects been that fundamental changes in the thoughts  may face immense dissonance when confronted with their professional duty to withhold or withdraw life-sustaining treatment deemed clinically futile .Physician A is a respiratory physician who first diagnosed Patient X, a 75 year old man, with chronic pulmonary disease from smoking. About 6 months ago, Physician A diagnosed Patient X with Stage 4 metastatic lung cancer and referred him to an oncologist. Given his long association with Patient X, Physician A continued to review him. About a month ago, Patient X was told his cancer was progressing despite chemotherapy.Patient X had sought Physician A’s advice on how to proceed, knowing that his treatment options were limited. Patient X then explained that he had found the chemotherapy very debilitating and was keen to stop all treatment and wanted to focus on maximising the quality of his remaining life. He had come to seek Physician A’s advice on this matter. He agreed for a Home Hospice Care referral and told Physician A that he wanted to spend his remaining days away from the hospital and in the company of his three children who lived abroad. He was looking forward to seeing his first grandson born to his eldest son. Physician A helped Patient X complete an Advanced Care Plan (ACP) and informed the oncologist of the patient’s desire to stop treatment.Unfortunately, the next day, the borders of the country where Patient X’s children were living were closed due to efforts to curb the spread of COVID-19, leaving his two sons unable to secure outbound flights home. Fortunately, Patient X’s youngest daughter who was on a sailing holiday in Europe was already on-route and arrived just before the borders of Patient X’s country were sealed. She did however have to serve a two-week self-isolation period in a local government facility. Unfortunately, she tested positive for COVID-19 and remained at the facility for 38 days.A week after she completed her self-isolation, Patient X became ill and was taken to hospital with a severe case of pneumonia. After Patient X desaturated in the general ward, he was transferred to the ICU. Physician A broached the topic of Patient X’s ACP with his daughter and explained that, although he was in the ICU, he would not be mechanically ventilated should he deteriorate further. In that moment, Patient X’s daughter pleaded with Physician A to “do everything and anything possible” to save her father. The daughter refused to acknowledge Patient X’s ACP since it had been made before the COVID-19 restrictions were put in place and done in the belief that he could at least see his grandson. Patient X’s daughter threatened legal action to have the ACP set aside arguing that it had been made without due consideration of the impact of the COVID-19 restrictions. Furthermore, she argued that now that the travel limitations had eased, a time-trial of ventilation should be allowed to buy time for her brothers to visit.In order to visualise how events surrounding a patient’s dying may serve as a catalyst inciting conflicts within the ICU physician, we consider the scenario of Physician A:Here, Patient X’s situation is considered a catalyst that brings forth numerous conflicts for Physician A. Firstly, Physician A recognises that whilst Patient X had made the ACP before the COVID-19 travel restrictions, he acknowledges that it was nonetheless a prior arrangement made . In addition, he feels conflicted as he understands that Patient X would want to be able to see his children and grandson before he dies . Furthermore, the ability of Physician A to address these conflicts are compromised by his own staunch religious beliefs in the sanctity of life (Innate Ring). The sheer incongruity between the beliefs, values and principles he upholds in the various Rings of Personhood leaves Physician A feeling deeply unsettled Fig. .Fig. 2CUnderstanding the internal constituents and external factors at play is crucial to understanding how Physician A may address this catalyst and its resultant conflicts.To clarify, internal constituents include Physician A’s beliefs, values, principles and moral considerations in addition to the roles, responsibilities and duties that may arise from his relational, social and professional affiliations. These are already encapsulated in the four rings of the RToP.External factors, on the other hand, are contextual factors which throw the status quo within and between the rings into disarray. They remain outside of Physician A’s locus of control. Such external factors can be very real, including a poor working environment, poor intercollegial support and the lack of timely, personalised, accessible support at the institutional level, and the lack of rotations or roles outside of their ICU clinical duties to recuperate, reflect, process their ICU experiences and receive support if required within and between rings, physicians may choose to prioritise and place greater importance on one constituent over another. For example, Physician A may resist initiation of ventilatory support for Patient X, despite his daughter’s wishes, based on the belief and professional stance that patients should have autonomy over their own treatment.Physician A could reframe competing constituents by altering his perspective of the situation at hand and viewing the decision to withhold ICU interventions as respecting the patient’s wishes. This would allow Physician A to meet his obligation to reduce suffering and, in the likelihood that the patient will not regain consciousness to see his children, abide by the ethical principle of beneficence as ICU treatment would be futile.In prioritising one set of beliefs, values and principles over another and reframing perspectives, the physician may however find that the “solution” achieved is still in conflict with other constituents, particularly those contained in other rings. Whilst the different rings may offer mutual support for one another, this may not be the case if conflicts persist and are only partially resolved or poorly resolved. Conflicts that continue to persist between rings are referred to as “dyssynchrony” and may result in sharp and prolonged moral, spiritual, emotional and psychological distress. For the ICU physician, such dyssynchrony may bear severe repercussions on their decision-making and functioning as efficacious healthcare professionals with vulnerable and dependent patients under their care.In prioritising the specific beliefs, values and principles that arise from his professional role and responsibilities, Physician A experiences a greater chasm within his Innate Ring which upholds the sanctity of life and his Societal Ring which sees him desiring to dutifully support his patient’s family as best he can. As such, left unchecked, poor resolution of these issues will lead to dyssynchrony between the rings Fig. . It is aIndeed, in discussing the prioritisation and reframing of internal constituents, the impact of external factors become apparent. A tired, emotionally drained physician at the end of a busy week at work confronted with a difficult issue involving persons that they can “relate to” will likely influence their ability to adequately address these conflicts and temper or resolve the dyssynchrony which may follow.Fortunately, a good support system surrounds Physician A. In discussing the situation with a colleague and friend, Physician A realises that disregarding patient autonomy has great ethical and legal implications upon his professional and personal beliefs, values and principles. He reasons, and is supported by his colleague and friend, to see that whilst he shared a bond with the patient, this bond may have clouded his decision-making process. Through an open conversation with his religious leaders and deeply reflecting on Patient X’s wishes, Physician A acknowledges that his personal conviction to sustain and prolong life in all circumstances may be detrimental to his patient’s quality of life. As such, he knows that he has to honour the ACP. Having arrived at a firm decision and resolving the conflict within Fig. , PhysiciHere, a positive influence of external factors is evident—that there are clear benefits to having timely, personalised and holistic clinical, professional and individualised collegial support. A nurturing working environment, opportunities to seek support, and time to reflect was key to supporting Physician A in finding synchrony between his Rings of Personhood.It is also likely that similar situations in the future will have less of a detrimental impact upon Physician A. Indeed, an ICU physician who is fortified with prior experience and well supported by colleagues and members of their Relational Ring will be better able to address catalysts even before they create conflict or dyssynchrony. Termed as “buffers”, we suggest that experience, access to support, time to process, reflect and inculcate lessons learnt in a supportive working environment are in part the basis for the physician’s ability to address catalysts, resolve conflicts and develop resilience against them. Notably, buffers not only emerge from external factors but also build upon internal constituents of the rings and may be present in all rings.The presence of catalysts, conflicts, prioritisation and reframing, external factors and internal constituents, buffering, synchrony and dyssynchrony highlight that concepts of personhood evolve and require review.To begin, the data suggests that concepts of personhood are not solely concerned with sustaining concepts of “what makes you, you” within the settings of dementia and palliation sedation Buron . Rather,These layered spheres reiterate the intertwined nature of the previous rings by maintaining a porous border between it and other layers. These porous borders explain the occurrence of the “ripple effect” when conflict arises between the rings/spheres and predispose dyssynchrony. Concurrently, these porous boundaries facilitate support for the rings/spheres in conflict as seen when Physician A’s colleagues and religious leaders who occupy a place in his Societal Ring/Sphere help address the dyssynchrony between his religious beliefs (Innate Ring/Sphere) and professional responsibilities . The porous borders may see the outer layers of the Relational Ring/Sphere, in some circumstances, shift into the Societal Ring/Sphere and vice versa.Changes in the ring/spheres due to conflict will see elements of internal constituents move further away from the sphere’s centre as a result of being accorded a lower level of importance or ranking. These elements may also reduce in size if associated buffers are attenuated.Conceiving the effects of caring for dying patients in ICU from evidence-based data (Kuek et al. Thus, from a practical perspective, acknowledging the effects of caring for patients in ICU from a holistic perspective merely foregrounds the need for a concerted effort to comprehensively support clinicians. This framework provides a means of guiding support for ICU physicians at a timely, personalised and targeted manner on two levels - on a personal level, to educate individuals in addressing any conflicts between their internal constituents through prioritisation and reframing, and on an institutional level, to aid host organisations in establishing supportive measures, such as role rotations, timely conflict management interventions, avenues for physicians to share their emotions and experiences. These will help to reduce instances of dyssynchrony, address negative external factors, enhance buffers and ensure a nurturing work environment for ICU physicians.Understanding the impact of dyssynchrony as a source of internal strife stemming from poor support for ICU physicians also underscores the need to determine how to better assess their needs. Here, the spheres of the RToP may serve as the basis for a longitudinal assessment tool. Such assessments need to be supported by use of portfolios and individualised mentoring processes that provide personalised, appropriate, specific, timely, accessible and long-term support. This would be especially useful for junior physicians in ICU.The provision of such care for the ICU physician is particularly pertinent whilst the COVID-19 situation rages on and healthcare professionals continue to fight seemingly inextinguishable fires. It is our hope that this paper will help institutions and physicians alike recognise how this striving can take its toll on the firefighter and set out to better equip and protect them from the fire itself.


Emerging research suggests young adults, in particular women, may be especially sensitive to changes associated with the COVID-19 outbreak. This study, which is part of an ongoing research project focusing on young adulthood and substance use during the UK COVID-19 lockdown, aimed to provide an in-depth snapshot of factors that young adult women may describe as influential in their alcohol consumption during this period. Virtual semi-structured interviews were carried out on a sample of 12 (23–25 years) women between April and May 2020. The data were analysed through thematic analysis and preliminary findings led to the identification of three themes: (1) Changes to working environment, (2) Limitations on social opportunities and efforts to socialise in a ‘new normal’, and (3) Effects of cohabitation on increased alcohol consumption. The preliminary findings of this study highlight factors relevant to changes in alcohol use during the COVID-19 outbreak in the UK. Emerging research indicates that more than one in six adults in the U.K. have increased their alcohol use during the COVID-19 lockdown, with approximately 50.4% of those being young adults . It has Recent research appears consistent with this; for example, As well as age, there also appears to be gender differences in responses to the pandemic. Women appear to be reporting higher levels of stress and anxiety symptoms and less resilience to stress during this period, than opposite gender counterparts . AdditioConsequently, although this study is part of a larger research project which collected data from a broader sample of both on men and women , the present short report focuses only on the data from the women who were interviewed, because of their recognised vulnerabilities during this period. The COVID-19 pandemic is a complex and unique situation which requires a highly granular analysis to unpick the factors which might be driving changes in alcohol use. It was the aim of this research through the employment of qualitative interviewing, to provide a response to the question, ‘How do young adult women describe the COVID-19 outbreak as influential in their alcohol consumption?’M = 24.67, SD = 0.65). The ethnicity of the sample largely self-identified as White (N = 11), with one participant who identified as Asian. Nine participants were employed; seven had begun working from home and one had their hours reduced because of the COVID-19 outbreak. Three had been furloughed, one of whom was also a student, and one was still part-time employed. Interviews took place virtually via Zoom, between April and May 2020 during the first UK government COVID-19 lockdown period. Participants were recruited via social media advertisement  and identified themselves as drinking on a weekly basis and met the age requirement of 18–25 years. They were also required to have been residing in the United Kingdom since the outbreak began and it was also specified in the eligibility criteria that the individual must not have been diagnosed with a substance use disorder if they wished to apply to participate. Full participant demographics can be seen in Twelve semi-structured qualitative interviews were carried with young adult women aged 23–25 years  . ThematiThe first two authors coded the data independently of each other. Separately, they followed the first two steps of TA. Firstly, both authors familiarised themselves with the data through multiple readings of the transcriptions. After this, line by line coding took place for each participant, using MS Word and Excel software. During the coding process, through the participants’ descriptions of their alcohol use, authors searched for parallels across the dataset. Once coding was complete, author three subsequently examined the codes to confirm they were coherent and unbiased. Finally, as a collective team, authors one, two and three completed steps three, four and five whereby examination of the earlier identified codes took place to consolidate themes. Themes were continually reviewed throughout this process to ensure their relevance to the research question. Additionally, points of difference were discussed throughout the process of developing themes, until a consensus was reached by the whole team.Through thematic analysis, three themes were identified: (1) Changes to working environment, (2) Limitations on social opportunities and efforts to socialise in a ‘new normal’, and (3) Effects of cohabitation on increased alcohol consumption. All participants described changes to their daily schedule, stemming from the COVID-19 outbreak, as pertinent in changes in their alcohol consumption. These changes were mainly associated with the lack of a ‘normal’ working environment, sudden limitations on social opportunities external to the home environment, attempts to socialise during a ‘new normal’, and finally, the impact of cohabitation with family members, partners and friends during lockdown. In parentheses after participant quotes are the participant’s pseudonym, age and average weekly alcohol consumption  prior to the outbreak, to during lockdown at the time of interview.“I think I am a little bit more stressed… pay is a little bit less now that I am working less ... I am stressing out a little bit and as I am drinking more….” .Eleven of the 12 participants reported substantial changes to their usual employment because of the COVID-19 outbreak. Therefore, majority of the sample had experienced some form of disruption to their daily structure and routine, as well as changes to their job security. Most often, these employment-related changes and the process of adjusting to a new working routine were critical in explaining the changes in their alcohol use. Of these 11 participants, four participants reported a decrease in their alcohol use, whereas seven an increase. Predominantly, for those who reported increases in alcohol use these changes were implicated in several ways. For example, some participants, such as Khloe, discussed using alcohol to cope with financial anxieties instigated by a reduction in her working hours:I think every evening kind of feels... like a weekend evening because you know you have nothing to get up for in the morning… I think you feel more relaxed to have more than a glass of wine because you are not worried about, I need to have a clear head for the morning.” It was evident that Khloe was feeling distressed during lockdown because of the financial and employment insecurities prompted by the COVID-19 outbreak. However, changes in workload were also implicated in increases in drinking for other reasons. Primarily, participants discussed how a decrease in their volume of work, as well as lowered expectations from their workplace and changes in working hours due to working from home, meant they had more leisure time throughout the week. They described having fewer restrictions on when they could drink, and having no, or reduced, working hours meant there was less to prevent them from drinking; also, the distinction between weekday and weekend was becoming less pronounced ““I guess also because I haven’t got work and I haven’t got set shifts for the next day, then I don’t need to worry so much about how much I am drinking or how much I am sleeping.” .As well as a decrease in participant’s current workloads, participants who were furloughed also described having more leisure time, which in turn had a direct impact on their alcohol consumption. The following furloughed participant, Marie, was one who reported a significant increase in their number of weekly units. Similarly, they attributed this increase to having less concern about a hangover the following day because they were not required to be at work:“I think the control of the drinking is more difficult… I think for most people, even family, it’s just the reasons you don’t tend to drink is because you have got your routine. Having that taken away… that is a big thing.” The importance of a routine was something many participants discussed; the significance of this is articulated by Jenny in the following quote. Jenny substantially increased her alcohol intake during this period, and stressed the importance of a working routine to give her more control over her alcohol use:As highlighted by Jenny, and emphasised throughout this theme, many of the participants who discussed an increase in their alcohol use would attribute this to changes to the structure of their day, usually associated with employment changes. These changes were often related to the use of alcohol to cope with financial anxieties and employment instability. Also, since most participants had been working from home, and had reduced or more flexible hours, they had more leisure time and fewer restrictions on their alcohol use.“For instance, sat at home with just myself and (housemate), I wouldn’t drink. However, if I was sat at home myself, (housemate) and all our friends, I would drink…it’s like if the environment is right, it has to be a mix of do I want to drink in this environment yes or no.” As well as changes to daily structure, it was evident throughout participant discussions that many of the women closely associated alcohol with social events, with nine of the women reporting their alcohol use as being primarily socially motivated. Due to the COVID-19 outbreak, there was a lack of opportunity to participate in social events, owing to lockdown restrictions. This was directly related to a reduction in four of the participants’ alcohol use, for example, Anna:“At the weekends I would love to go socialising and for a drink with friends and that’s not happening, I’m realising how much purpose I held in meeting other people, and socialising… how it made me feel good.” Through discussions with Anna, a participant who consumed a small amount of alcohol weekly pre-pandemic, the lockdown restrictions had led her to stop drinking alcohol completely. Anna described how the lockdown had meant there was no longer a social outlet for their alcohol use, and they were unable to experience a communal atmosphere when drinking. They describe how drinking became less appealing and they felt demotivated to consume any alcohol during the lockdown period. Janice had a similar perspective and described how this was impacting her wellbeing:Janice, who also reported a decrease in her alcohol use throughout lockdown, described how no longer being able to drink alcohol with her peers at weekends left her feeling dejected. She highlighted how drinking while socialising was an important aspect of her weekly routine, and lockdown had stopped that from occurring. Although she had decreased her alcohol use, being unable to socialise, which would occur alongside drinking, was described as negatively impacting her wellbeing.“Yes. We did a quiz last night and that was probably the most I’ve drank since lockdown...” . Although socialising alongside drinking could no longer occur in an external location, attempts were still made by participants to align drinking with their social motives, using other methods such as virtual pub quizzes. As can be seen in the following quote from Sophie, participants often viewed drinking at virtual social events as a method of continuing their pre-pandemic behaviours. Sophie highlighted how she expected that she would continue her drinking behaviours throughout the lockdown. However, these new ways of social drinking did not always align with her expectations:“At the beginning, I was like oh well, I drink a lot and so that is sort of what I do. You are sort of trying to still make it fun and be upbeat. Whereas now, I get less from the upbeat.” There were also distinct dialogues across these participants about the role that ‘virtual socialising’ played in their alcohol consumption. Some participants discussed how, although they consumed very little alcohol throughout lockdown and had significantly decreased their weekly drinking, if they did drink it was solely during virtual social events Therefore, as highlighted in this theme, participants whose alcohol use motivations aligned closely with social-specific goals decreased their alcohol use. These participants attributed this change to the inability to socialise alongside their alcohol use, because of the pandemic restrictions. Although participants made attempts to socialise alongside their alcohol use in a similar way to their pre-pandemic behaviours, such as by participating in virtual events, for most this did not provide the necessary outlet and was not providing participants with the desired social rewards. Furthermore, the limiting of social activities was having impacts on reported wellbeing through the lockdown period.Then I came home, and it was like this is weird. Let’s drink... I definitely had a very heavy first night… Definitely have made do by doing lots of deliveries for alcohol... We have definitely been drinking.” . When describing the uniqueness of the pandemic, Marie explained how drinking was a way for herself and her family to cope with the unfamiliarity of the pandemic. Similarly, as in the previous theme, the continuation of alcohol use as a pre-pandemic behaviour was a useful way for Marie and her family to preserve some normality during this unusual period. Some participants, such as Elizabeth, who saw an increase in their alcohol use during the lockdown, described how drinking was an enjoyable family activity which could take place in the home, at the end of a working day:“A lot of that time I wake up and me and my brother, my brother’s wife, is like let’s not drink today. When it gets to five o’clock it’s like, what do we do now? That happened yesterday and we were just like let’s have a gin and tonic [Laughs]." Of the nine women who reported social motivations for alcohol use, five of them reported an increase in alcohol use and identified people who they lived with during lockdown as contributing to this. For example, some of these participants related their family’s lockdown drinking very closely to their own, ““If I had a drink for example on a Thursday or a Friday, I may be the only one... Now, my dad will have already had a drink and then I am having a drink and then my mum has had a drink... It’s just the number of us that are doing it… it has become noticeably more obvious that we will argue with each other.” However, family drinking was not always discussed positively. One participant described how increased alcohol consumption was leading to a great deal of volatility in their household. Jenny, who reported a significant increase in units consumed per week mentioned that her family, who had similarly increased their drinking during the lockdown period, stated that due to their increased drinking there was conflict between her and her family members:Jenny described how as all of the adults in her household had increased their drinking, and she felt that everyone’s moods had been impacted. She mentioned alcohol increasing hostility, which was leading to many family arguments, which were particularly stressful and challenging for her to manage during an already challenging period.“…with my flatmates probably, if any of us starts drinking the rest of them follow suit...”. . Likewise, participants’ partners’ drinking norms also had an influence. Sarah, who increased her alcohol use during lockdown, explained that both her and her partner were now working from home and although she might not of had a desire to drink, her partner’s drinking could act as a prompt for her to have a drink:“…yes, it’s definitely something we would do together… I’d be very easily influenced by my partner suggesting to me to have a glass of wine…I would be more likely to say yes, even if I wasn’t much feeling the urge.” Some participants also described how cohabitating during lockdown with significant others, as well as friends, impacted on their alcohol use. For instance, the direct impact of flatmates’ alcohol norms on participants’ drinking behaviours was mentioned, It was evident from Sarah’s description that her partner played a key role in encouraging her alcohol use during lockdown. With both herself and her partner working from home, she felt herself more tempted to have a drink than if she had been working alone. Like Sarah, several participants felt that the individuals who they were sharing a home with during lockdown were influential in their increased alcohol use.The broad aim of this research was to investigate how the experiences of national lockdown and the COVID-19 outbreak impacted on alcohol use in a young adult UK sample. Preliminary results allowed for analysis of a women-only sample. A preliminary investigation of a women-only sample is worthwhile because of their likely vulnerability during the lockdown period as a consequence of their drinking motivations .As noted, current research investigating substance use in the UK, as well as more globally, are reporting conflicting evidence and also are solely employing quantitative methods . AlthougThe findings highlight the importance of acknowledging individual factors for understanding why an individual reports either increasing or decreasing their alcohol use during a pandemic. Through participant conversations, it became apparent that alcohol motives played a key role here. More specifically, those who were more coping-motivated were more likely to increase their alcohol use to manage pandemic-related stressors, which were largely employment-focused. This supports the suggestion made by However, in this research, it was not only coping with financial and employment instability which led to increases in alcohol use, but also changes in daily structure and routine caused by changes to their employment. Through emerging research summarised in These findings are especially pertinent in the context of a woman only sample, supporting emerging research which suggests that women may be particularly vulnerable during this period ; . This These preliminary findings provide a unique insight into the impact of lockdown and the outbreak of COVID-19 on alcohol use for a sample of young women. However, it is important to consider limitations of this research. One limitation is the lack of diversity within the sample. The participants were almost exclusively White British and from the London area, limiting generalisability. Likewise, this study aimed to provide an overview of experiences of young adults, however, participant ages ranged from 23 to 25 years, which does not allow for investigation of those at the beginning of young adulthood. Furthermore, this research only focused on self-identified ‘low-risk’ drinkers. With those who are coping-motivated likely to be more vulnerable during a pandemic, it is also important for future research to explore more at-risk alcohol users in such periods. Additionally, participant eligibility encompassed anyone who consumed alcohol weekly, leading to considerable variation in the frequency of alcohol use across the sample. Finally, the setting and timing of this study are likely to have been influential. As the pandemic is ever changing, these results provide a unique snapshot at the onset of the outbreak in the U.K., and it is important to consider the specific social and political climate of this period when assessing these findings.This research highlights unique factors which have prompted increases or decreases in alcohol use during the COVID-19 lockdown. From these findings, the authors encourage the use of alcohol motivation-theories to understand potential changes in alcohol use during the context of a pandemic. By focusing on alcohol use motivations, vulnerabilities for increased in alcohol use during a pandemic can be more easily acknowledged for women and young adults alike. These factors may be particularly useful for future public health interventions to promote safe alcohol use during national disasters. The findings also provide direction for quantitative work which focuses on alcohol use during and adjusting to life after a pandemic. When working with young adult samples, alongside the inclusion of motivational measures, the authors recommend including survey measures to capture pandemic-related employment and job stress, as well as environmental factors such as participants home environment during lockdown periods. Beyond the specific effects of the pandemic and lockdown on alcohol use, the current study has implications for other circumstances. The experience of disjointed routine led to changes in alcohol use, and it seems likely that such an outcome could occur in other situations where the working week loses structure, such as through unemployment or working from home, which is also relevant outside of the pandemic context. COVID-19 presented a unique opportunity to witness the effects of an extreme situation, but the conclusions we can draw spread beyond this unique situation.Click here for additional data file.Supplemental Material, sj-pdf-1-eax-10.1177_21676968211067327 for A Qualitative Insight Into Factors Pertaining to Alcohol Consumption Among Young Adult Women During the COVID-19 Outbreak by Amy Montague, Ifigeneia Manitsa, and Fiona Barlow-Brown in Emerging Adulthood


The way people perceive climate change scientific evidence becomes relevant in motivating or demotivating their climate actions. Climate change is one of the most publicized topics globally, and media has become an important “validator” of science. Therefore, science has become more exposed to criticism. Even when most scientists, decision makers, and laypeople agree on the robust evidence of climate science, there is still room for disagreement. The main aim of this paper is to reveal how climate change knowledge generated by science is perceived by the laypeople and to observe a possible gap between them. The study answered two questions “What are the main contrasting climate change topics in the scientific literature?” and “What are Romanian and Belgian participants’ perceptions of these topics?”. A qualitative approach was chosen for data analysis, using Quirkos software. The present cross-country study showed commonalities and differences of views between the two groups of participants regarding six climate change topics. Divergent perceptions among Belgians and Romanians came out, for example, within the theme “The heroes, villains, and victims of climate change.” Thus, whereas Belgians considered all people, including themselves, responsible for climate change, Romanians blamed mostly others, such as big companies, governments, and consumers. Additionally, both groups stated that climate change existed, but contrary to Belgians, Romanians voiced that climate change was often used as an exaggerated and politicized topic. The analysis revealed that perceptions about climate change, its causes, and its impacts are social constructs with a high degree of variability between and within the two national groups. The study argued that the cleavages between scientific literature and people’s views were blind spots on which a participatory approach was needed to better cope with climate change challenges. Climate change is one of the most significant challenges where economic, social, and political stakes are high. Climate change has moved from being mainly a physical phenomenon to being simultaneously a social , economiThe public draws most of its knowledge about climate science from the media, considered a primary source of information . ClimateFamiliar climate narratives have become prominent through media, international organization conferences, reports, and scientific literature that have legitimized climate change narratives ,15. TherWe advanced the following exploratory questions (EQs) within this context: (1) what are the main contrasting climate change topics in the scientific literature? (EQ1) and (2) what are Romanian and Belgian participants’ perceptions of these topics? (EQ2). Three main objectives are set to respond to these EQs. The first objective is to identify contrasting scientific arguments about climate change in the literature. The second objective is to reveal how Romanian and Belgian participants think and feel about selected science-based climate change topics. The third objective is to identify the climate change portrayals that participants express for each science-based climate change topic. Practically, the main aim of the paper is to reveal how climate knowledge generated by science is perceived by laypeople and to observe a possible gap between them.First, based on desk research, different aspects  related to climate change were identified and described based on the scientific literature and international documents. Six science-based climate change topics were identified. The search for the scientific literature was conducted in electronic databases  downloaded from Anelis plus platform . The search was restricted to papers written in English. The reference time frame was 1990 (publication date of the first IPCC Assessment Report)—2022. For 1990–2022, only one keyword—“climate change sources”—generated 41,456 records  in Scopus Elsevier . ConsidThe following science-based climate change topics were identified following this methodological approach: (1) “Climate change between awareness and denialism”, (2) “Causes of climate change”, (3) “Manifestations and solutions of climate change”, (4) “Climate change adaptation and maladaptation”, (5) “Climate change: a source of conflict”, and (6) “The heroes, villains, and victims of climate change”; here, (6.1) “The “King” of climate change villains” was highlighted. For subtopic 6.1, four main contributors to climate change ) were selected from The European Environment Agency  report. The second methodological step was to conduct a qualitative interview to reveal how the selected science-based climate change topics are locally embedded. The understanding about how science-based knowledge regarding climate change is perceived by laypeople is limited and, in this context, authors considered appropriate to adopt an exploratory approach. They opted for the qualitative research because it helps to gain an understanding of concepts, thoughts, and experiences, while quantitative research confirms or tests a theory or hypothesis. Qualitative research enables to gather in-depth insights into the problem or help to develop hypotheses for future quantitative research. By using the qualitative interviews to explore the beliefs and values regarding the selected science-based climate change topics, a human dimension was added to scientific evidence of climate change. Between November 2021 and February 2022, 29 qualitative face-to-face interviews that offered great discussion flexibility were collected (14 from Romania and 15 from Belgium). The focus on Romanian and Belgian participants reflects the need to offer a comparative image of how people from a former communist country (Romania) and an old free-market country (Belgium) perceive various aspects related to climate change. They are both EU member states but different in terms of geographical, economic, and social characteristics. Consistent with other research , we consThe semi-structured interviews generated a picture of participants’ perceptions of the six science-based climate change topics. The interviews were carried out in Romanian and French, respectively. They lasted between 35 and 45 min. The interviewers were two of the authors, one for Romanian participants and one for Belgian participants. They were trained by one of the authors with higher expertise in qualitative interviews. Interviewers’ training ensured no unintended influence on what the subject answered. The sampling strategy envisaged selecting participants from different groups . We started from an initial group (people with whom researchers interacted/worked) for the recruitment of participants. Then, following the snowballing technique (meaning that a participant recommended another one who was further selected if she/he met the pre-established selection criteria), we reached the final number of participants.The participation was voluntary, the confidentiality and anonymity were ensured, and no financial reward was given for participation. The participants were explained the aim of the study, why they were selected, and what would happen with the interview data. A filter question, “Have you heard about climate change?” was included. Nobody answered “no”; therefore, nobody was excluded from the interview. The semi-structured interviews asked questions that were planned and open-ended. More precisely, the interviewers had a list with broad questions for each science-based climate change topic, and they allowed flexible answers and discussions. To obtain a fuller image of what people think about each of the six topics, the interviewer was given a set of additional set questions (“interview guide”) to guide them within the interview process. This “interview guide” comprised core questions and many associated questions related to the central question  that werAt the 14th interview, 15th, respectively, new meanings and statements could no longer be revealed. Therefore, “theoretical saturation”  was reacThe interviews were recorded and transcribed verbatim. In the transcripts, nicknames were assigned to respondents to facilitate the analysis. Finally, data input and analysis were carried out using Quirkos software version 2.4.1. A thematic analysis was performed. All six science-based climate change topics were coded . For the most cases, participants’ statements were not assigned directly to the “Quirks” since each “Quirk” was broken down into smaller meaningful units of themes called, from now on subtopics . However, there were cases where people’s opinions could not be included in a separate subtopic. Those statements were attached directly to the “Quirk”, as it was the case for Quirk 4 and 5 (Themes 4 and 5). Therefore, those answers were included in the Quirk and not in a subtopic. Similarly, in Quirk 4 (Theme 4), we included the statements saying that people did not hear about successful programs/strategies/actions aimed at climate change adaptation. The authors opted to use Quirkos because is largely used for reporting qualitative data. It helps to read the data more efficiently. Because of the visual interface, it gives you the possibility to compare the results very easily.This section presents climate change as a “wicked” multidimensional problem ,31,32. TConspiracy-based narratives, religious beliefs, personal attitudes and experiences of previous exaggerated scares, and even poor science are used to rationalize the climate change skepticism ,43. HubeFollowing Bonds , the cliStudies on public perceptions of climate change are numerous . These are the heroes as characters who are fixers of the problem, the villains who are the causes of the problem, and the victims who are those harmed by the problem . The cliHan and Ahn  addresseLück et al.  approachFrom this science-based climate change topic that could be interpreted as “Who are the climate-change heroes, villains, and victims?”, we move to the following subsection that introduces the question “Who contributes the most to climate change?”.We used a closed question (“What do you consider to be the “king” of climate change villains?”) with seven possible answers for this science-based climate change topic. In the following, we justify the choice for the answer options based on the reviewed literature (in addition to the explanations included in the Methodology section).2. They have great applicability in industry, e.g., serving as refrigerants in refrigeration, air conditioning and heat pumps, foaming agents, and additives in the extraction of natural products such as nutraceuticals and flavorings”).The European Environment Agency  presentsFor answer option “Overproduction-consumption nexus,” we referred to Stuart et al.’s  study, w2 emissions between 1980 and 2005 (and between 1950 and 1980), showed little association between nations with rapid population growth and countries with high and fast GHG emissions. Studies argued that it was not the population growth that caused the growth in GHG emissions but rather the growth in consumption levels [The answer option “Population growth” was added starting from IPCC’s consideration (cited by ) that pon levels . Therefon levels ,135.Storylines gained increasing attention in studies of climate change ,155,156 The number assigned to each bullet a,b indicFor theme 6.1. “The King” of CC villains, Romanians assigned the highest score to “Overproduction-overconsumption” among the main contributors to climate change . In contThe thematic analysis revealed that both Romanian and Belgian participants are aware of climate change. Similar, in a qualitative study, Sorgho et al.  found th“(…) it is evident that it (climate change) is used as a pretext to favor certain types of production/products marketing or to ban them. Politicians also use it as a national and global manipulation tool.” , “(…) out of five scoops on Google, two are about climate change. Climate change is also blamed for the energy prices, justifying that they must act to stop CC in this way, too” . One explanation of these participants’ position could be that climate change communication has taken place through media and social messengers, to the detriment of scientific communication. Areia et al. [“Climate change is not a pretext to impose restrictions. It is not exaggerated to speak about climate change” .Even if all Romanians considered that climate change exists, there is a general opinion that it is a politicized and exaggerated issue: a et al.  considera et al. , who inva et al.  reportedEven if most Romanian and Belgian participants consider anthropogenic causes the leading contributor to climate change, a better understanding of our contributions to climate change can activate norms about social responsibility to correct deficiencies caused by human action . This is“I noticed that compared to 30 years ago, when the snow was one meter high all winter and you couldn’t get out of the house, now, it doesn’t exist. It’s snowing one day, and that’s all. Then, the summers are stormy. It used to be so hot that you couldn’t sleep at night in the south.” , “For several years in Europe, the temperature has been higher in winter, with less snow and frost. More droughts in southern countries.” . Weber [Another observation is that Romanians, mainly, but also several Belgians perceive experiences of severe weather events such as climate change, a reality also exposed by Farrokhiet al.  on Irani). Weber  argued t). Weber  by incre). Weber  posited ). Weber .“Nature can regenerate if we become more restrained” , “Nature is smart; it can regenerate itself if we are more responsible” . Skeptical voices were not missing either: “Maybe in some parts, the effects of CC are irreversible, while in other regions, not, as is the case with the Aral Lake, where nothing can be done” . There was also a general view among Romanians that technology can counteract the effects of climate change. Still, its costs and availability could be a barrier: “Technology will be a solution, but not now, because states are not financially prepared for such a thing, especially since we are talking about changes in the pandemic when the economies are impoverished anyway” . Most of the Belgians did think that technology could be a solution. They were not as optimistic as the Romanians in this respect. “New technologies could help but are not the solution itself” . Bonaccorsi et al. [Most of the Romanian participants seemed to be optimistic about nature’s capacity to regenerate, but they linked it to a more environmentally friendly behavior shift: i et al.  warn thai et al. .“There is too much corruption, and politicians are just thinking about making money” . This is not surprising since Romania is globally ranked 69th by its perceived levels of public sector corruption (where 1st is the least corrupted and 180th the most corrupted country) [“I do not trust anyone. I think that the world is too corrupted and that every initiative will fail” .Interviewed people voiced principles that should be observed when implementing climate change strategies. These principles range from solidarity, cooperation, and consultation, to a “solid scientific basis when implementing new strategies” or “to rely on people’s expertise rather than economic and political interests,” which ask for a more visible scientific message within the community and less politicization of climate change. Unfortunately, one of the leitmotifs of the interviews with the Romanian participants was corruption and lack of trust in the political class, regardless of the six topics they referred to: country) . Only onAll the Romanian interviewees were unaware of successful climate change adaptation measures/strategies, and only two Belgians referred to such successful actions, while they gave many examples of maladaptation. Some Romanian participants keenly pointed out the ban of using wood for household heating, which was widely publicized in Romania in the last months of 2021 , as maladaptation since that interdiction was linked to the achievement of the climate neutrality goal. Similarly, many Belgians referred to the Green Deal envisaged transition to green energy (including the case of electric cars) as a maladaptation case. Several Belgians referred to organic products, which they considered a more expensive and natural resource than conventional ones, as a case of climate change maladaptation. This perceived reality asks for media coverage of positive and successful examples of the fight against climate change.Moreover, educational and informational campaigns are needed to raise awareness of organic agriculture as a positive example of how farmers can help mitigate climate change. This is all more important since the Belgian respondents were from Wallonia, where 90.8% of the country area dedicated to organic farming is located . Opinion“The great powers—Russia, the USA, China—and the rich of the world are to blame for what is happening, and Romania’s politicians” . It is essential to underline that only three of the Romanian participants accused ordinary people, themselves, of contributing to climate change. Most Belgian interviewees acknowledged that everyone is responsible for climate change. At the same time, most Romanians stated that they were the victims of climate change. Mazutis and Eckardt [For the last science-based topic, politicians were blamed by most Romanians as the main responsible for climate change. However, participants offered a wide range of “villains”:  Eckardt  called t“Human activities, our Western cultural heritage centered on infinite production, and politicians” .The discussions showed that Romanian participants emphasized general, broad categories of climate change “villains” . This is similar to Greek university students who named economic growth and industrialization the main culprits of climate change . Only 6 Finally, we revealed a set of climate change portrayals described by participants based on their similar views related to the six science-based topics. These portrayals must be valued as an inventory of local visions and familiar storylines  regardinThe present study testifies that participants’ economic and political beliefs influence their views on climate change. This creates an environment of rhetorical adversity where misinformation is present . AlthougWe documented evidence about a set of science-based climate change topics in the climate literature, and we elicited Romanians and Belgians perceptions about them. It was revealed that perceptions about climate change, its causes, and its impacts are social constructs with a high degree of variability between and within nations . On the one hand, the thematic analysis highlighted many commonalities between the two groups of participants, such as the awareness of climate change, climate change as a source of conflict, and transition to green energy as a source of climate change maladaptation see . On the The findings provide insights for policymakers and other practitioners who want to connect better the governance of climate adaptation with citizens’ perceptions of climate change. Summing up, the discussion has shown several pathways to be considered in addressing climate change.Firstly, the identified cleavages between scientific communication and participants’ perceptions are the blind spots in which a participatory approach of scientists, media, politicians, and citizens is needed to better cope with climate change challenges. For example, one intervention is required to adjust Romanians’ perceptions of climate change as an exaggerated subject. Another intervention point is related to the low scores assigned by Romanians and Belgians’ participants to the impact of waste on climate change. More information and education campaigns are needed to overcome the citizens’ knowledge gap. Secondly, both in Romania and Belgium, heightened attention should be placed on the climate change scientific consensus rather than controversies to raise public acceptance. Thirdly, in line with Mauelshagen and Pfeiffer’s  conclusiThe authors acknowledge that while the purpose of this research was to qualitatively explore the perceptions of several climate change, the findings are not generalizable on a larger scale. However, this type of qualitative research speaks of the need to investigate perceptions of people from various geographical, political, and economic settings and with different cultural beliefs. Such a qualitative approach could decipher barriers to behavior change in other parts of the world, thus contributing to the common efforts to fight climate change.