Dehumanization During the COVID-19 Pandemic

Abstract

Communities often unite during a crisis, though some cope by ascribing blame or stigmas to those who might be linked to distressing life events. In a preregistered two-wave survey, we evaluated the dehumanization of Asians and Asian Americans during the COVID-19 pandemic. Our first wave (March 26–April 2, 2020; N = 917) revealed dehumanization was prevalent, between 6.1% and 39% of our sample depending on measurement. Compared to non-dehumanizers, people who dehumanized also perceived the virus as less risky to human health and caused less severe consequences for infected people. They were more likely to be ideologically Conservative and believe in conspiracy theories about the virus. We largely replicated the results 1 month later in our second wave (May 6–May 13, 2020; N = 723). Together, many Americans dehumanize Asians and Asian Americans during the COVID-19 pandemic with related perceptions that the virus is less problematic. Implications and applications for dehumanization theory are discussed.

Filthy Animals: Integrating the Behavioral Immune System and Disgust into a Model of Prophylactic Dehumanization

“…Disgust toward Chinese people, in turn, predicted greater blatant dehumanization of them. Understanding the factors shaping such blatant dehumanization may be paramount to addressing the discrimination and violence faced by Chinese people and other Asians in the USA during the COVID-19 pandemic (Croucher et al, 2020 ; Tavernese & Oppel Jr., 2020 ; see also Markowitz et al, 2021 ). However, for the purposes of establishing a generalizable model of prophylactic dehumanization, our focus on this single population can be seen as a limitation.…”

“…In the USA, influential politicians and media outlets implicated China in the pandemic, and Chinese-Americans were verbally abused and physically attacked (Tavernese & Oppel Jr., 2020 ). In fact, some even blatantly dehumanized Chinese people (Markowitz et al, 2021 ). Therefore, beginning the day President Trump announced the pandemic was a national public health crisis (March 13, 2020; AMJC, 2020 ), we tested the Prophylactic Dehumanization Model among a sample of Americans.…”

Filthy Animals: Integrating the Behavioral Immune System and Disgust into A Model of Prophylactic Dehumanization

“…In the USA, influential politicians and media outlets implicated China in the pandemic, and Chinese-Americans were verbally abused and physically attacked (Tavernese & Oppel Jr., 2020). In fact, some even blatantly dehumanized Chinese people (Markowitz et al, 2021). Therefore, beginning the day President Trump announced the pandemic was a national public health crisis (March 13, 2020; AMJC, 2020), we tested the Prophylactic Dehumanization Model among a sample of Americans.…”

Social and Cognitive Psychology Theories in Understanding COVID-19 as the Pandemic of Blame

“…Blame is a feature of individual, organizational, system and government responses to COVID-19 pandemic worldwide. Struggling to deal with an invisible, organic threat, many governments, agencies, and individuals have sought instead to assign undue responsibility of the spread of COVID-19 to groups and entire countries (e.g., China; Al-Jazeera, 2020 ), minority groups ( Sarkar, 2020 ; Markowitz et al, 2021 ). The World Health Organization has suggested that the language used around pandemics is critical to limiting blame and stigma, but many world leaders have paid no heed to this advice, calling COVID-19 by regional language or variants by their location of origin ( World Health Organisation [WHO], 2020 ).…”