Covid-19 crisis and hostility against foreigners

Area of Science:

• Social Psychology
• Behavioral Economics
• Public Health

Background:

• Societal hostility towards out-groups often escalates during economic downturns and health crises.
• Concerns exist that the Covid-19 pandemic may exacerbate xenophobia and anti-foreigner sentiment.

Purpose of the Study:

• To investigate whether heightened awareness of the Covid-19 crisis influences hostile behavior towards people from other nations.
• To examine the impact of the pandemic's salience on intergroup relations and social behavior.

Main Methods:

• A nationally representative sample (n=2,186) in the Czech Republic participated in a controlled money-burning task.
• The study experimentally manipulated the salience of the Covid-19 crisis to measure behavioral responses.

Main Results:

• Exogenously increasing the salience of the Covid-19 crisis led to increased hostility towards foreigners from the EU, USA, and Asia.
• This effect was consistent across diverse demographic sub-groups.
• Minimal to small negative effects were observed towards domestic out-groups and in-groups, suggesting a broader, though less conclusive, impact on social behavior.

Conclusions:

• The Covid-19 crisis demonstrably increased hostility towards foreign nationals, underscoring the risk of inflamed anti-foreigner sentiments.
• Findings suggest a need for careful monitoring of the crisis's impact on social behavior and intergroup relations to mitigate negative consequences.