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Concern with COVID-19 pandemic threat and attitudes towards immigrants: The mediating effect of the desire for tightness
Journal article   Open access   Peer reviewed

Concern with COVID-19 pandemic threat and attitudes towards immigrants: The mediating effect of the desire for tightness

Silvana Mula, Daniela Di Santo, Elena Resta, Farin Bakhtiari, Conrad Baldner, Erica Molinario, Antonio Pierro, Michele J. Gelfand, Emmy Denison, Maximilian Agostini, …
Current Research in Ecological and Social Psychology, Vol.3, pp.100028-100028
2022
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cresp.2021.100028
PMID: 35098189

Abstract

COVID-19 Desire for tightness Negative attitudes Threat
•We examined links between COVID-19 threat, tightness, attitudes towards immigrants.•Cross-sectional and longitudinal models were used (N = 55,015 from 41 countries).•Those who were most concerned about COVID-19 threat desired more tightness.•Those who most desired tightness had more negative attitudes towards immigrants. Tightening social norms is thought to be adaptive for dealing with collective threat yet it may have negative consequences for increasing prejudice. The present research investigated the role of desire for cultural tightness, triggered by the COVID-19 pandemic, in increasing negative attitudes towards immigrants. We used participant-level data from 41 countries (N = 55,015) collected as part of the PsyCorona project, a cross-national longitudinal study on responses to COVID-19. Our predictions were tested through multilevel and SEM models, treating participants as nested within countries. Results showed that people's concern with COVID-19 threat was related to greater desire for tightness which, in turn, was linked to more negative attitudes towards immigrants. These findings were followed up with a longitudinal model (N = 2,349) which also showed that people's heightened concern with COVID-19 in an earlier stage of the pandemic was associated with an increase in their desire for tightness and negative attitudes towards immigrants later in time. Our findings offer insight into the trade-offs that tightening social norms under collective threat has for human groups. [Display omitted]
url
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cresp.2021.100028View
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