Assessing the Causal Link between the COVID-19 Pandemic and Racial Discrimination

Abstract

In this article, we report the results of a randomized controlled experiment that examines how exposure to information about a global pandemic from Asia affects white Americans’ prosocial behavior towards white, black, and Asian Americans. We find that when exposed to a new disease threat from Asia, (1) white Americans donate significantly less money to Asian American recipients than to white or black American recipients, (2) liberals and conservatives are equally likely to discriminate, and (3) a significant spike in media attention about violence against Asians inhibited this discriminatory behavior—at least temporarily. Our experiment allows us to rule out alternative explanations for the unequal treatment of Asian Americans, providing evidence of a causal link between the COVID-19 pandemic and racial discrimination. The study contributes to knowledge about the spillover effects of external threats on race relations and has implications for public health and science communication.

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

“…Indeed, given that there is sizeable between‐country variability in right‐wing parties’ responses to the pandemic both in terms of narratives and policies (Wondreys & Mudde, 2022), future research should explore the influence of individual differences in political ideology among participants nested in other countries and subject to different political party framing. Please note that we also limited our analysis to White British participants in part because we did not have enough non‐Whites to confidently explore other British subgroups (for similar practice, see Meleady & Hodson, 2022; Zhao et al., 2022). Future research, including that in Britain, could expand consideration to other demographics to examine the generalizability of the findings.…”

“…Data were collected from 400 participants from the online participant panel Prolific. Because the UK is largely White, we focused on White British participants only (for similar practice, see Meleady & Hodson, 2022; Zhao et al., 2022). Data from three mixed‐race and three non‐British participants were excluded.…”

“…We anticipated that reactions to the COVID‐19 pandemic would probably be complex and nuanced. Consider that experimentally induced COVID threats among White Americans have increased discrimination towards Asians (see Lu et al., 2021; Zhao et al., 2022), whereas a British study (Meleady & Hodson, 2022) tracking naturally occurring changes in COVID‐perceptions over time found that decreases in COVID‐threat coincided with reduced outgroup avoidance (and no changes in anti‐immigrant attitudes). Consider also that, during COVID‐19, RWA (characterized by conventionality, submission to authorities, and punitiveness towards outgroups) decreased in Germany (Heller et al., 2022) but increased in the United States (Pazhoohi & Kingstone, 2021), whereas other American research found little association between political ideology and objective COVID‐related changes (e.g., cases; restrictions) (Stern & Axt, 2022).…”

Unmasking racial avoidance: Experimental evidence on parental school choice and public health policies during the Covid-19 pandemic

“…Many also blamed Black and Latinx people, as reports of their higher rates of COVID cases circulated ( Laster Pirtle, 2020 ; Skinner-Dorkenoo et al, 2022 ). Individuals desiring stronger social boundaries from Asian, Latinx, and Black people was particularly salient during COVID ( Kaushal et al, 2022a ; Lu et al, 2021 ; Zhao et al, 2022 ), especially for White Americans who perceived COVID to be intense ( Mandalaywala et al, 2021 ).…”