Republicans treated Chinese-born US residents relatively worse than US-born US residents, compared to non-Republicans throughout the COVID-19 pandemic

Asian Americans became targets of increasingly hostile behavior during the COVID-19 pandemic. What motivated this? Fears of contagion arising from a behavioral immune system (BIS) may have motivated differential treatment towards Chinese-born US residents, especially early in the pandemic and among those vulnerable to COVID-19. On the other hand, rhetoric from right-wing media figures may have legitimated anti-Asian behavior. We explore these questions using a behavioral game with a representative sample of Americans at two points: in spring and fall 2020. Participants were partnered with a US- or Chinese-born US resident. The average American treated Chinese-born US residents worse compared to US-born residents in the spring but not the fall, when China was no longer a COVID-19 hotspot. But among Republicans, likely more receptive to right-wing rhetoric, unequal treatment was both stronger in the spring and persisted into the fall.

Social distancing from foreign individuals as a disease-avoidance mechanism: Testing the assumptions of the behavioral immune system theory during the COVID-19 pandemic

Topics of prejudice, discrimination, and negative attitudes toward outgroups have attracted much attention of social scientists during the COVID-19 pandemic, as the preference for social distancing can originate from the perception of threat. One of the theoretical approaches that offers an explanation for avoidance tendencies is the behavioral immune system theory. As a motivational system that aims to identify and avoid pathogens, the behavioral immune system has been shown to be triggered by various cues of a potential disease threat (e.g., the risk of contracting a virus), which further leads to negative social consequences such as xenophobia, negative attitudes toward various social groups, and distancing tendencies. We present a correlational study (N = 588; Polish sample) that was designed to test mediational models derived from the behavioral immune system theory, using the COVID-19 pandemic as a source of natural disease threat. In serial mediation analyses we show that the perceived threat of COVID-19 translates into greater preferred social distance from foreign individuals, and that this occurs in two ways: 1) via pathogen disgust (but not sexual or moral disgust), and 2) via germ aversion (but not perceived infectability). Both pathogen disgust and germ aversion further predict general feelings toward foreign individuals, which finally determine the preferred social distance from these individuals. The results support the behavioral immune system theory as an important concept for understanding social distancing tendencies.

Strangers look sicker (with implications in times of COVID-19)

We animals have evolved a variety of mechanisms to avoid conspecifics who might be infected. It is currently unclear whether and why this “behavioral immune system” targets unfamiliar individuals more than familiar ones. Here I answer this question in humans, using publicly available data of a recent study on 1969 participants from India and 1615 from the USA. The apparent health of a male stranger, as estimated from his face, and the comfort with contact with him were a direct function of his similarity to the men in the local community. This held true regardless of whether the face carried overt signs of infection. I conclude that our behavioral immune system is finely tuned to degrees of outgroupness—and that cues of outgroupness are partly processed as cues of infectiousness. These findings, which were consistent across the two cultures, support the notion that the pathogens of strangers are perceived as more dangerous.

Stigmatization of Chinese and Asian-looking people during the COVID-19 pandemic in Germany

Background The outbreak and global spread of COVID-19 was accompanied by an increase in reports of stigmatization of Chinese and Asian-looking people. The behavioral immune system provides a framework for stigmatization in response to infectious disease threats. Specifically, stigmatization might increase with rising levels of infectious disease threat. The present study aimed to examine this hypothesis during the early phase of the COVID-19 pandemic. Methods As part of the “EUCLID” project (https://euclid.dbvis.de), a total of 5011 persons from Germany were surveyed via an online-questionnaire between February 2nd and April 3rd, 2020, covering the progression of the COVID-19 pandemic over three time periods which were defined by critical events. Results There was no evidence for an increase in the stigmatization of Chinese and Asian-looking people across three topics, that is personal proximity, air travel, and medical measures upon arrival from China. Conclusions The present findings provide good news in that participants showed an adaptive response to the infectious disease threat rather than displaying increased stigmatization. Further research is necessary to specify the conditions that increase the risk of stigmatization in response to infectious disease threats.

Pathogen Threat and In-group Cooperation

Disease-causing parasites and pathogens play a pivotal role in intergroup behavior. Previous studies have suggested that the selection pressure posed by pathogen threat has resulted in in-group assortative sociality, including xenophobia and in-group favoritism. While the current literature has collated numerous studies on the former, strikingly, there has not been much research on the relationship between pathogen threat and in-group cooperation. Drawing upon prior studies on the function of the behavioral immune system (BIS), we argued that the BIS might facilitate cooperation with in-group members as a reactive behavioral immune response to pathogen threat. More specifically, we held that individuals might utilize cooperative behavior to ensure that they can receive social support when they have contracted an infectious disease. We reviewed existing findings pertaining to the potential role of the BIS in in-group cooperation and discussed directions for future studies.

The evolution of disgust for pathogen detection and avoidance

The behavioral immune system posits that disgust functions to protect animals from pathogen exposure. Therefore, cues of pathogen risk should be a primary driver influencing variation in disgust. Yet, to our knowledge, neither the relationship between current pathogen risk and disgust, nor the correlation between objective and perceived pathogen risk have been addressed using ecologically valid measures in a global sample. The current article reports two studies addressing these gaps. In Study 1, we include a global sample (n = 361) and tested the influence of both perceived pathogen exposure and an objective measure of pathogen risk—local communicable infectious disease mortality rates—on individual differences in pathogen and sexual disgust sensitivities. In Study 2, we first replicate Study 1’s analyses in another large sample (n = 821), targeting four countries (US, Italy, Brazil, and India); we then replaced objective and perceived pathogen risk with variables specific to the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic. In Study 1, both local infection mortality rates and perceived infection exposure predicted unique variance in pathogen and sexual disgust. In Study 2, we found that perceived infection exposure positively predicted sexual disgust, as predicted. When substituting perceived and objective SARS-CoV-2 risk in our models, perceived risk of contracting SARS-CoV-2 positively predicted pathogen and sexual disgust, and state case rates negatively predicted pathogen disgust. Further, in both studies, objective measures of risk (i.e., local infection mortality and SARS-CoV-2 rates) positively correlated with subjective measures of risk (i.e., perceived infection exposure and perceived SARS-CoV-2 risk). Ultimately, these results provide two pieces of foundational evidence for the behavioral immune system: 1) perceptions of pathogen risk accurately assay local, objective mortality risk across countries, and 2) both perceived and objective pathogen risk explain variance in disgust levels.

The Impact of COVID-19 on Americans’ Attitudes toward China: Does Local Incidence Rate Matter?

Linking local COVID-19 and population statistics to a U.S.-based survey we recently conducted, we study the spatial variation in the impact of COVID-19 on Americans’ attitudes toward China. The research strategy capitalizes on differential local COVID-19 incidence rates as varying dosages of the COVID-19 impact across local contexts in the U.S. Our results reveal negative yet heterogeneous effects of the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic on Americans’ attitudes toward China. We find that a greater local exposure to COVID-19 is associated with a lower level of trust in Chinese and a less favorable attitude toward China. These findings lend consistent support to behavioral immune system theory by bridging the literature on contextual variations in public opinion, with broader implications for U.S.–China relations.