Did COVID-19 Increase Xenophobia and Racism?

"Moral Foundations Theory (MFT) proposes that humans have innate capacities to hold certain moral values, which are then either nurtured or stunted by socio-cultural forces. The five morals typically listed are care, fairness, in-group loyalty, respect (for authority), and purity; other versions propose additional values such as liberty (which was primarily devised to distinguish Libertarians). Political conservatives tend to score highly across all five morals, while political liberals tend to score highly only in care and fairness ( Haidt & Nosek, 2009). Parasitic-Stress Theory (PST) proposes that human values were fundamentally shaped, as we evolved, by the interaction of our ancestors with parasites and diseases ( Fincher & Thornhill, 2014)."

"This prediction was based on findings such as those of Van Leeuwan (2014), which reported that as pathogenic stress increased, so did the binding values of MFT, i.e. the values of the MFT that are associated with out-group hostility. Hadarics and Kende (2018) had also reported that as binding values increased, so did negative behavioral intentions toward out-group members."

Psychological theories predicted that the COVID-19 pandemic could increase out-group hostility such as xenophobia and racism. Moral Foundations Theory posits innate moral capacities shaped by socio-cultural forces, commonly listing care, fairness, in-group loyalty, respect for authority, and purity; political conservatives tend to score higher across binding values, while liberals emphasize care and fairness. Parasitic-Stress Theory proposes that values were shaped by ancestral interactions with parasites and disease. Empirical findings linked higher pathogenic stress to stronger binding values and linked stronger binding values to greater negative intentions toward out-groups. Published evidence shows increased racism against Asians in the US and UK, while causation, generalizability, and duration remain uncertain.

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