The document summarizes the results of a study analyzing media discourse around the global financial crisis using the theory of social representations. Six main themes emerged: 1) representations of finance being "under accusation" or a "sick person"; 2) the genesis and effects of "bad finance"; 3) the contribution of financial mathematics to virtualization; 4) deregulation and lack of oversight; 5) the dissociation of science from ethics; 6) the need for ethical reform and more regulation. The analysis found opposition between economics and the increasingly virtual and speculative nature of finance was a major framework used in the discourse.

1. Clio Bulgarella Antonio Grieco

2. General Index Psychology and Finance Study: Analysis of the crisis discourse on media through the Social Representations theory Results: six main areas Concluding remarks

3. The crisis Almost three years have passed since the global crisis in financial markets that exploded in September 2008 and the stock market is still fluctuating up and down, terrifying investors and keeping the whole financial system in turmoil. This has clearly shown the fragility and failure of several financial rules inside the market.

4. Emotions on finance … and it is evidence of the fact that rational economic models are too reductive and not flexible enough to grasp the complexity of the market's mechanism. The struggle of these models is suggesting that investors' decisions are based more on emotional and irrational dynamics than on conscious cognitive processes and purely rational decisions.

5. Behavioral Finance: to understand Financial reactions through Psychology The central issue in behavioral finance is explaining why market participants make systematic errors. Behavioral finance highlights inefficiencies such as under- or over-reactions to information as causes of market trends. Such reactions have been attributed to limited investor attention, overconfidence, over-optimism and noise trading.

6. Loss aversion An other key observation is loss aversion, the unwillingness to let go of a valued possession. Loss aversion appears to manifest itself in investor behavior as a reluctance to sell shares or other equity, if doing so would result in a nominal loss.

7. Crisis: Debates in the media discourse We want to show a study on social discourse based on the Social Representations Theory .

8. Exploratory Hypothesis These analyses move from the exploratory hypothesis that the main rhetorical device is based on the split between: The good “ real ” economy The bad “ virtual “ finance.

9. Good “ real ” ECONOMY Vs Bad “ virtual ” FINANCE The good real ECONOMY being anchored in the productivity of real people and their work; The bad virtual FINANCE in insubstantial financial products produced by speculators so complicated that ordinary people as well as so-called experts do not understand them.

10. MEDIA SOURCES Analysis of this controversial view has been conducted using texts published in various countries and languages in: Generalist and specialised print media (Newspapers, conference proceedings, books) digital media (websites, forum, blogs) Looking at texts on the financial crisis mainly based on interviews with opinion leaders and economic and finance specialists, often questioning the identity of their disciplines and the complex relationship between economics, finance, and politics.

11. Experts and Laymen This analysis has looked at various print media (newspapers, conference proceedings, books) and digital media (forum, blogs, websites) in different countries, and we are ready to conduct more systematic analyses by positioning opinion leaders and laymen on the semantic space in accordance to their role as: academic experts banking experts political leaders financial/economic journalists laymen (few people participants in online forum)

12. Preliminary results: Six main areas One of the first results evident is the redundancy of rhetorical figures of speech in both in generalist and specialized sources, which concerns six main thematic areas: a) Representations of finance as “under accusation”, as “sick person”, and as “predatory animal”; b) Genesis and development of “bad finance” and its global effect; c) Contribution of science (financial mathematics) and virtualisation of economics into finance (volatility and risk); d) Deregulation and market self-regulation; e) Dissociation of science from ethics; f) To be done: reaction to the crisis and ethical choice .

13. a) Representations of finance as “under accusation”, … One of the main metaphors is related to the finance “under accusation”, put in the dock of a symbolic law-court. “ Litigious Condominium “ (Granata,M. Bragantini,S. 2009)

14. a) Representations of finance as “under accusation”, … ★ “ Finance is under siege, accused to have pushed the price of primary materials sky high” . “A particular category of bad speculators would include those that sell stocks without actually owning the stocks they are selling" (Alesina, A. & Giavazzi, F. 2008 p.57) Alberto Alesina (Professor of Political Economy, Harvard University), Francesco Giavazzi (Professor of Political Economics, MIT and Bocconi University);

15. … as “sick person”,… Finance Doctor (Vita,S. 2009) The economic virus (de Cecco,M. 2009) Toxic stocks (Loriana Pellizzon 2009), Sterilization of toxic assets (Tremonti, G. 2009) Finance is a zero sum game and many rescue plans are like giving a blood transfusion to a gravely injured person with fatal internal injuries (Mazzotti,D. 2009 )

16. Regressive metaphors as “predatory animal” or dependent child The banks do their work, just like a lion when it attacks its prey (Gaggi,M. 2009) The Italian people are like ostriches ( Farinetti,O. 2009) Capitalism is like a baby in a box (Akerlof, G. 2009)

17. b) Genesis and development of “bad finance” and its global effect; The genesis of the representations of “bad finance” corresponds to its separation from economy and its rules: “ It all began in the 1970s, with the progressive liberalization of the economy ‘ s principal parameters - money, taxes and capital - which led to unprecedented fluctuations in important economic and financial principals.” La rédaction, Problèmes économiques: “Crise: la faute à ....la finance?” n.2., January 2009, p.1. our translation from French.

18. c) Contribution of science and virtualization of economics into finance The virtualization of the economy into finance has been supported by the sophistication of mathematics applied to economics. The progressive opposition between finance and economics corresponds to this process of virtualization of finance, producing volatility and therefore risk.

19. Paper economy (Lerner ,G. 2009) The financial Bubble (Morris, C.R. 2008) Castle of credit derivatives (Spaventa, L., 2009) c) Metaphors about the virtualisation of economics into finance

20. d) Deregulation and market self-regulation The phenomenon of the progressive virtualisation of finance has been supported by the concurrent process of deregulation and market self regulation. The legal scenarios are evoked by the metaphorical expressions like: conflict of interest, fraud, the lawless far west, bank corruption, law-courts, etc

21. d) Deregulation and market self-regulation F inancial Innovations: A Lawless Far West (Spaventa,L. 2008 pp. IX-XXIII) ★ Their rule is in reality only one, the rule of not having rules ” (Tremonti,G. 2008 p.15) ★ “‘ Financial innovation --- has become a tool for lawlessness in that far west without rules that, especially in the United States, the financial sector has become in the last decade” (Spaventa, L. 2008 p. XI);

22. e) Dissociation of science from ethics ★ The next step in the construction of a split representation which opposes the bad virtual finance to the good economics anchored in reality is related to the dissociation of science from ethics. “ As for financial mathematicians, until now they have not had the opportunity to question themselves on the ethical purpose of their work.”

23. e) Dissociation of science from ethics ★ “ But our time of standing pat, of protecting narrow interests and putting off unpleasant decisions that time has surely passed.” “(…) this crisis has reminded us that without a watchful eye, the market can spin out of control-and that a nation cannot prosper long when it favours only the Prosperous.”(Obama, B. 2009) ★ “ A banking system was created on paper, on stocks. To this was added the financial markets as well as other speculations. This means that the banking system has deviated from its original mission.” (Yunus, M. 2009.) ★ “ The level of irresponsibility is frightening, just as were the size of the profits” (Morris, C. R. 2008, p.XXX)

24. f) To be done: reaction to the crisis and ethical choice. The active reply to the crisis is generally the promotion of an ethical choice: “ In the future they will have to face an ethical choice : work to enrich the banking system or rather to contribute to the general welfare” In line with this “to be done” action as ethical reaction to the crisis, media not only provide analysis in terms of a law-court scenario, but also pronounce a verdict . The title of a Press release says it all: "Finance on trial: the verdict. Seven charges, on five the popular jury has found guilty".

25. f) Affermative actions “ Do it yourself banks” (Bottalico,G. 2009) ★ “ Millions of Americans who have worked hard and behaved responsibly have seen their life dreams eroded by the irresponsibility of others and by the failure of their government to provide adequate oversight(...) Haste is dangerous, especially when you are dealing with comprehensive change in our financial system(...)This should be the most important piece of legislation that we have had in the banking committee in 50 years” (Obama,B. 2009) Barak Obama (U.S. President);

26. Concluding Remarks The key points which organizes the whole discourse as transversal dimension is the opposition between economics and finance, confirming the explorative hypothesis.. Financial specialists, often dealing with the complex relationship between economics, finance, and politics, simply react rediscovering the “common sense truth”: to come back to the measure: trust, confidence, the social equity and more justice, the “ need to return to real reality rather than tying ourselves to virtual reality” . In a word: the future seems a return to the past.

27. Thank you for your attention!