Testing the Disgust-Based Mechanism of Homonegative Attitudes in the Context of the COVID-19 Pandemic

Abstract

Negative attitudes and stigmatization can originate from the perception of a disease-related threat. Following the spread of the COVID-19 pandemic, it is often suggested that incidents of discriminatory behavior are the result of defense mechanisms aimed at avoiding pathogens. According to the behavioral immune system theory, people are motivated to distance themselves from individuals who show signs of infection, or who are only heuristically associated with a disease, primarily because of the disgust they evoke. In this paper we focus on negative attitudes toward gay men and lesbians who are among social groups that have been persistently framed as “unclean.” In our correlational study (N = 500 heterosexual participants; Polish sample data collected during the first COVID-19 lockdown in Poland, in March/April 2020) we tested moderation models derived from the behavioral immune system theory. Specifically, we investigated whether perceived vulnerability to disease and perceived threat of contracting COVID-19 moderate the relation between disgust and homonegativity. We found that sexual disgust (but not pathogen nor moral disgust) predicted homonegative attitudes. This effect was stronger for participants expressing higher levels of perceived vulnerability to disease but was not dependent on the perception of the COVID-19 threat. The results reaffirm previous evidence indicating a pivotal role of disgust in disease-avoidance mechanisms. They also point to functional flexibility of the behavioral immune system by demonstrating the moderating role of perceived vulnerability to disease in shaping homonegative attitudes. Finally, they show that the threat of COVID-19 does not strengthen the relationship between disgust and homonegativity.

Social distancing from foreign individuals as a disease-avoidance mechanism: Testing the assumptions of the behavioral immune system theory during the COVID-19 pandemic

“…Our results add to a growing number of studies that highlight how the COVID-19 pandemic situation translated into BIS activation (e.g., Bacon & Corr, 2020;Hromatko et al, 2021;Makhanova & Shepherd, 2020;Meleady et al, 2021;Miłkowska et al, 2021;Sorokowski et al, 2020;Stevenson et al, 2021;Szymkow et al, 2021). Again, we have shown the importance of pathogen disgust and germ aversion in shaping general evalua tions of foreign individuals, and that these general feelings lead to the preferred social distance toward outgroups.…”

“…To measure the perceived threat of COVID-19, participants indicated their agreement with eight statements on a 7-point scale (from 1 = strongly disagree to 7 = strongly agree; Szymkow et al, 2021). The scale included items measuring the extent to which partici pants perceived coronavirus to be a threat to their lives (e.g., "I think that coronavirus is a real threat to my life", "I am convinced that the media are exaggerating the threat of coronavirus").…”

“…Funding: This work was supported by the Ministry of Science and Higher Education in Poland under the 2019-2022 program "Regional Initiative of Excellence", project number 20/2020/RID. Data Availability: For this article, a dataset is freely available (Szymkow, Frankowska, & Gałasińska, 2021).…”

“…All data and study materials for this paper are available via the OSF repository (for access see Index of Supplementary Materials below). Szymkow, A., Frankowska, N., & Gałasińska, K. (2021) Appendix B…”

Looking for your cross‐group friends after the breakout? Children's intergroup contact behaviours before and after the onset of COVID‐19

“…Experimental manipulations of disease salience were found to affect attitudes towards immigration among adult samples; when pathogen threat was made salient, individuals started to endorse immigration less (Faulkner et al, 2004 ) and were less willing to provide support for immigrants (Peterson et al, 2017 ). As such, evidence from the COVID‐19 literature provides some support for the idea that prejudice towards outgroups increases as a function of disgust and anger (Freitag & Hofstetter, 2022 ; Sorokowski et al, 2020 ; Szymkow et al, 2021 ).…”