Research, data and specialists opinion linking racism, xenophobia and political affinities to unmanaged fear during pandemics
Racism against Asian Americans has surged as the coronavirus sweeps the U.S., with reports of hate crimes averaging approximately 100 per day, according to Rep. Judy Chu (D-Calif.).
Anti-Asian bias is spreading throughout Canada’s largest cities during the COVID-19 pandemic, according to the results of a new poll by the Chinese Canadian National Council for Social Justice (CCNC-SJ).
The poll – which surveyed people in Vancouver, Toronto and Montreal – revealed that acts of racism related to the virus are “disturbingly common” in Canadian neighbourhoods.
Secretary-General Denounces ‘Tsunami’ of Xenophobia Unleashed amid COVID-19, Calling for All-Out Effort against Hate Speech
Source: https://www.un.org/press/en/2020/sgsm20076.doc.htm
The impact of fear is instant: when people with liberal attitudes experienced physical threat, during a study, their political and social attitudes became more conservative, temporarily. Conservative politicians and electioneering exploit this, aiming to raise voters’ fears of immigration by comparing immigrants to germs, for example, which targets our deep, biologically evolved motivations to avoid contamination and disease. In one study, during an H1N1 flu epidemic, researchers reminded people of the dangers of the flu virus and then asked them their attitudes towards immigration, after which they were asked whether they had been vaccinated against flu yet. Those who hadn’t received their anti-flu shot were more likely to be anti-immigration than the ones who felt less threatened.
But in a follow-up study, the researchers offered people a squirt of hand sanitiser straight after the flu warning. The immigration bias went away. Making people feel safe changes their voting decision to more liberal. When researchers asked people to imagine themselves completely invulnerable to any harm, Republican voters became significantly more liberal in social attitudes to issues like abortion and immigration. Reason is suffused with emotion.
Source: https://www.bbc.com/future/article/20200505-why-its-so-hard-to-be-rational-about-covid-19
Source: https://www.jstor.org/stable/41416974?seq=1
Source: https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1002/ejsp.2315
“… But today, it can result in prejudice and xenophobia”
” Aarøe, for instance, has found that fear of disease can influence people’s attitudes to immigration. She emphasises this is part of the behavioural immune system’s “better safe than sorry” approach. “It’s a misinterpretation” of irrelevant cues …”