IntroductionThe COVID-19 pandemic has been accompanied by a global rise of nationalism, and many countries’ responses to the pandemic have further intensified nationalist sentiments. The public is polarized over government policies toward the pandemic. Hence, this study examined the associations of patriotism and nationalism with the support for lockdown policies and evaluations of governmental performance.MethodsWe recruited 180 participants from one Chinese university.ResultsPatriotism and nationalism had a direct effect on evaluations of governmental performance. Patriotism also had indirect effects on favorable evaluations of governmental performance through the support of lockdown policies. In addition, this study examined the relationship of threat perception and evaluations of governmental performance in the pandemic.DiscussionThis relationship was found to be insignificant; however, the interaction effects between threat perception and patriotism on evaluations of governmental performance were significant. The implications of the study results are discussed.

System justification and meritocratic beliefs legitimize the status quo of economic, social, and political arrangements, and may correlate with favourable evaluations of governments' performance during the COVID-19 pandemic. This study furthers research on this topic by examining (1) the cultural value antecedents of system justification and meritocratic beliefs, and (2) the differential effects of these on attitudes toward ingroups and outgroups from an intergroup perspective. The results show that collectivist values positively predict system justification and meritocratic beliefs, whereas a similar effect was not observed for individualist values. As hypothesized, system justification motivation was positively associated with favourable evaluation of the Chinese government (an ingroup). By contrast, system justification and meritocratic beliefs were negatively associated with evaluation of the American government (an outgroup). We discussed the implications for understandings of the cultural value bases of system justification and meritocratic beliefs, and the relevance of the lens of intergroup relations in studying those beliefs.