Between Conspiracy Beliefs, Ingroup Bias, and System Justification: How People Use Defense Strategies to Cope With the Threat of COVID-19

Abstract

The current situation around coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) portrays a threat to us in several ways: It imposes uncertainty and a lack of control and reminds us of our own mortality. People around the world have reacted to these threats in seemingly unrelated ways: From stockpiling yeast and toilet paper to favoring nationalist ideas or endorsing conspiratorial beliefs. According to the General Process Model of Threat and Defense, the confrontation with a threat-a discrepant experience-makes humans react with both proximal and distal threat responses. While the proximal response manifests in behavioral inhibition that leads to heightened anxious arousal and vigilance, distal responses seek to lower behavioral inhibition and the associated state of anxiety and vigilance through engaging in distal defenses. In the present research, we propose that the reactions to COVID-19 may represent distal defense strategies to the pandemic and, therefore, can be explained and forecasted by the model. Thus, we hypothesized increased perceived COVID-19 threat to lead to a proximal threat response in the form of heightened behavioral inhibition. This, in return, should enhance the use of distal defenses (i.e., several ingroup biases, system justification, and conspiratorial beliefs) overlapping with the reactions observed as a response to COVID-19. This hypothesized mediated effect of increased perceived COVID-19 threat on distal defenses was tested in two preregistered studies: In Study 1 (N = 358), results showed perceived COVID-19 threat to be related to behavioral inhibition and, in turn, to be associated with increased distal defenses (i.e., higher entitativity, control restoration motivation, passive party support). In Study 2 (N = 348), we manipulated COVID-19 threat salience and found results suggesting the distal defenses of ingroup entitativity, system justification, and conspiratorial beliefs to be mediated by the proximal threat response. The results of the present research hint toward a common mechanism through which the seemingly unrelated reactions to COVID-19 can be explained. The results might help to predict future behavior during the COVID-19 pandemic and to design measures to counteract the detrimental effects of the pandemic.

Antecedents and consequences of COVID-19 conspiracy beliefs: a systematic review

“…States & United Kingdom). Experimentally manipulating threat salience of COVID-19 led to increased feelings of fear and anxiety, which in turn was associated with belief in conspiracy theories 44 .…”

“…Coping with threat and uncertainty. The COVID-19 crisis is marked by many uncertainties about health, the economy, and potential treatments [42][43][44] , which can lead individuals to develop or adopt narratives, including conspiracy theories, to make sense of these events 45 . Indeed, higher levels of uncertainty 19,46 (United States) as well as intolerance or avoidance of uncertainty 23,35 47 by creating meaning and filling a lack of control 48,49 , for example through providing alternative explanations to official accounts.…”

“…Indeed, higher levels of uncertainty 19,46 (United States) as well as intolerance or avoidance of uncertainty 23,35 47 by creating meaning and filling a lack of control 48,49 , for example through providing alternative explanations to official accounts. These are some of the reasons why conspiracy theories are likely to arise following societal crises 48,49 .The threat of COVID-19 may be considered the combination of uncertainty, violation of expectancies, lack of autonomy, and lack of agency 44 .In line with the theory that belief in conspiracy theories are driven by existential motives, such as the need to feel safe and in control 50,51 , COVID-19 conspiracy beliefs have been related to the following antecedents linked to uncertainty and control: greater perceived anxiety 24,52 (Jordan; Slovakia), lack of control 52 (Slovakia), feelings of powerlessness 53 (predominantly United…”

From anxiety to action—Experience of threat, emotional states, reactance, and action preferences in the early days of COVID-19 self-isolation in Germany and Austria

“…In addition to BIS and BAS states, our study included an assessment of reactance. This is due to the unique situation of this crisis, where "classical" psychological threat concerns and situational pressures create a kind of super-threat [7]. In Germany and Austria, rather drastic actions were taken in a short time, which has certainly contained the spread of the coronavirus, but was accompanied by significant restrictions of individual freedom.…”

Untitled

“…We will address this issue from a theoretical perspective provided by research on psychological threat and defense [4]. Several psychologists have described the global pandemic as psychologically threatening [5][6][7] with the potential to arouse anxiety and shape defensive behavior. The present research pursues several goals: Firstly, we aim to investigate whether the COVID-19 pandemic was perceived as a psychological threat through subjective epistemic (meaning-related) discrepancies, or through motivational-affective discrepancies (i.e., lack of control, agency, efficacy) in Austria and Germany.…”