Salience of infectious diseases did not increase xenophobia during the COVID-19 pandemic

TY - JOUR

T1 - Salience of infectious diseases did not increase xenophobia during the COVID-19 pandemic

AU - Fan, Lei

AU - Tybur, Joshua M.

AU - Van Lange, Paul A.M.

N1 - Publisher Copyright: © The Author(s), 2024.

PY - 2024/10

Y1 - 2024/10

N2 - Multiple proposals suggest that xenophobia increases when infectious disease threats are salient. The current longitudinal study tested this hypothesis by examining whether and how anti-immigrant sentiments varied in the Netherlands across four time points during the COVID-19 pandemic (May 2020, February 2021, October 2021 and June 2022 through Flycatcher.eu). The results revealed that (1) anti-immigrant sentiments were no higher in early assessments, when COVID-19 hospitalizations and deaths were high, than in later assessments, when COVID-19 hospitalizations were low, and (2) within-person changes in explicit disease concerns and disgust sensitivity did not relate to anti-immigrant sentiments, although stable individual differences in disgust sensitivity did. These findings suggest that anecdotal accounts of increased xenophobia during the pandemic did not generalize to the population sampled from here. They also suggest that not all increases in ecological pathogen threats and disease salience increase xenophobia.

AB - Multiple proposals suggest that xenophobia increases when infectious disease threats are salient. The current longitudinal study tested this hypothesis by examining whether and how anti-immigrant sentiments varied in the Netherlands across four time points during the COVID-19 pandemic (May 2020, February 2021, October 2021 and June 2022 through Flycatcher.eu). The results revealed that (1) anti-immigrant sentiments were no higher in early assessments, when COVID-19 hospitalizations and deaths were high, than in later assessments, when COVID-19 hospitalizations were low, and (2) within-person changes in explicit disease concerns and disgust sensitivity did not relate to anti-immigrant sentiments, although stable individual differences in disgust sensitivity did. These findings suggest that anecdotal accounts of increased xenophobia during the pandemic did not generalize to the population sampled from here. They also suggest that not all increases in ecological pathogen threats and disease salience increase xenophobia.

KW - behavioural immune system

KW - COVID-19

KW - disgust

KW - health

KW - xenophobia

UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85207447848&partnerID=8YFLogxK

U2 - 10.1017/ehs.2024.28

DO - 10.1017/ehs.2024.28

M3 - Journal article

C2 - 39469075

AN - SCOPUS:85207447848

SN - 2513-843X

VL - 6

JO - Evolutionary Human Sciences

JF - Evolutionary Human Sciences

M1 - e34

ER -