Ideologically-based contact avoidance during a pandemic: Blunt or selective distancing from ‘others'?

This project sought to understand when ideology is relevant (or not) to predicting contact avoidance of ‘others' during the COVID-19 pandemic. Right-leaning ideologies (political conservatism, right-wing authoritarianism, social dominance orientation) were not expected to predict greater contact avoidance per se, but rather exhibit selective avoidance of outgroup (vs. ingroup) members. White British participated in one exploratory (Study 1 N = 364) and two pre-registered (Study 2 N = 431, Study 3 N = 700) studies. As expected, right-leaning ideologies were significantly stronger predictors of greater preferred personal distance and contact discomfort regarding foreign outgroups (vs. British ingroup) in Studies 1 and 3 (partially supported in Study 2). Ideology rarely predicted ingroup reactions. This Ideology × Target pattern was itself not moderated by the perceived COVID-19 threat. Pre-pandemic theorizing that heightened behavioural immune system responses are associated with heightened right-leaning ideologies appear insufficient for use in actual pandemic contexts, especially when highly politicized. © 2023 The Authors. European Journal of Social Psychology published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd.

The pandemic and the question of national belonging: Exposure to covid-19 threat and conceptions of nationhood.

Drawing on the behavioural immune system hypothesis, we argue that the prevalence of the Covid-19 pandemic threat in an individual's respective environment relates to exclusive, ethnic conceptions of nationhood. Referring to the affective intelligence theory, we maintain that specific negative emotions are prompted by the perception of being exposed to a pandemic threat, and these emotional states in turn structure political preferences regarding national belonging. Using an original survey in six European countries during the first peak of the pandemic in late April and early May 2020, we analyze both the impact of individual Covid-19 experiences and the contextual exposure to a pandemic threat through hierarchical analyses of 105 European regions. Our empirical analysis shows that exposure to the pandemic is linked to stronger ethnic national identities for both levels of analysis. We also find that anger substantially mediates this relationship and has primacy over feelings of fear. Taken together, our results indicate that the behavioural immune system appears as a pervasive obstacle to inclusive orientations.

Reductions in perceived COVID-19 threat amid UK's mass public vaccination programme coincide with reductions in outgroup avoidance (but not prejudice).

It has long been proposed that perceptions of threat contribute to greater outgroup negativity. Much of the existing evidence on the threat-prejudice association in the real world, however, is cross-sectional in nature. Such designs do not adequately capture individual-level changes in constructs, and how changes in constructs relate to changes in other theoretically relevant constructs. The current research exploited the unique opportunity afforded by the mass COVID-19 vaccination programme in the United Kingdom to explore whether reductions in pathogen threat coincide with reductions in outgroup prejudice and avoidance. A two-wave longitudinal study (N1  = 912, N2  = 738) measured British adult's perceptions of COVID-19 threat and anti-immigrant bias before and during mass vaccine rollout in the United Kingdom. Tests of latent change models demonstrated that perceived COVID-19 threat significantly declined as the vaccine programme progressed, as did measures of outgroup avoidance tendencies, but not prejudiced attitudes. Critically, change in threat was systematically correlated with change in outgroup avoidance: those with greater reductions in perceived COVID-19 threat were, on average, those with greater reductions in outgroup avoidance. Findings provide important and novel insights into the implications of disease protection strategies for intergroup relations during an actual pandemic context, as it unfolds over time.

Pandemic threat and intergroup relations: how negative emotions associated with the threat of Covid-19 shape attitudes towards immigrants

Behavioural immune system theory predicts that attitudes towards immigrants become more hostile during times of increased threat from pathogens, as pandemic threat triggers aversive emotional responses, which in turn foster outgroup hostility. We test this notion in the context of the current Covid-19 crisis. Combining both original individual-level survey data of around 6,000 European respondents during the second Corona wave in winter 2020/2021 and regional data of pandemic threat in a multilevel design, we show that Covid-19 pandemic threat exposure in 105 European regions is indeed associated with more negative attitudes towards immigrants. Moreover, hierarchical path models indicate that Covid-19-induced anger fosters anti-immigrant attitudes, while we find no evidence that disgust as a pivotal avoidance-oriented emotion is crucial. In contrast to conventional wisdom, individuals reacting with fear to the pandemic hold more immigrant-friendly orientations. Taken together, our results indicate that the behavioural immune system (BIS) appears as a compelling obstacle to inclusive orientations. However, our findings challenge the notion that every emotion triggered by the BIS translates the pandemic threat into negative attitudes towards immigrants. [ FROM AUTHOR] Copyright of Journal of Ethnic & Migration Studies is the property of Routledge and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full . (Copyright applies to all s.)

The role of behavioural immune system and belief in COVID-19 misinformation on COVID-19 protective behaviours in Indonesia.

This study (N = 1306) investigated the role behavioural immune system and specific beliefs in COVID-19 misinformation in predicting COVID-19 protective behaviours. By analysing the data from an online survey, we found that germ avoidance significantly predicted social distancing and was negatively correlated to transportation use. Belief in conspiracy theories and non-psychological cures and prevention methods were negatively associated to social distancing, while the latter also predicted lower preventive commodities purchasing. These findings suggested that germ aversion should be incorporated in the promotion of COVID-19 prevention behaviours and that any misinformation related to COVID-19 should be minimized to improve people's protective behaviours.

The relationship between measures of individualism and collectivism and the impact of COVID-19 across nations.

BACKGROUND: The global COVID-19 pandemic has been characterized by marked variations in prevalence, mortality and case fatality across nations. The available evidence to date suggests that social factors significantly influence these variations. The sociological concepts of individualism and collectivism provide a broad explanatory framework for the study of these factors. There is evidence to suggest that cross-cultural variations in collectivism may have emerged via a process of natural selection, as a protective mechanism against infectious diseases. As a test of this hypothesis, this paper examined the association between indices of individualism and collectivism and the prevalence, mortality and case fatality rates of COVID-19 across nations. STUDY DESIGN: This study was a population-level association study based on data in the public domain and from prior publications. METHODS: Data on four standard measures of individualism/collectivism were obtained from the original publications. These were correlated with estimates of the nation-wide prevalence, mortality and fatality rates for COVID-19 in 94 countries, obtained from the Johns Hopkins Medical University real-time dashboard. RESULTS: Individualism was positively correlated with COVID-19 prevalence, mortality and case fatality rates; conversely, measures of collectivism were negatively correlated with these parameters. The strongest association was between scores for individualism and mortality rate, and remained significant after correcting for several potential confounders. CONCLUSIONS: These findings are consistent with the prior hypothesis of a relationship between individualism-collectivism and the impact of infectious disease across populations, and have implications in terms of social strategies aimed at minimizing the impact of COVID-19.

Autistic traits and negative emotions in the general population during COVID-19: Mediating roles of the behavioural immune system and COVID-19 risk perception.

Identifying the susceptibility factors of the emotional response to COVID-19 is highly significant for the psychological epidemic-crisis intervention, and autistic-related traits (ATs) is likely to be one of the candidate factors. The current study explored the relationships between ATs, emotional response to COVID-19, and the behavioural immune system (BIS) measured by trait pathogen avoidance and COVID-19 risk perception in the general population. The results showed that ATs predicted increased negative emotions directly and indirectly by enhancing the activation tendency of BIS and COVID-19 risk perception. The findings provide a candidate hypothesis for the reaction characteristics to pathogen threats in individuals with ASD and expand the understanding of individual differences in response to COVID-19.