Abstract
The current situation around coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) portrays a threat to us in several ways: It imposes uncertainty and a lack of control and reminds us of our own mortality. People around the world have reacted to these threats in seemingly unrelated ways: From stockpiling yeast and toilet paper to favoring nationalist ideas or endorsing conspiratorial beliefs. According to the General Process Model of Threat and Defense, the confrontation with a threat – a discrepant experience – makes humans react with both proximal and distal threat responses. While the proximal response manifests in behavioral inhibition that leads to heightened anxious arousal and vigilance, distal responses seek to lower behavioral inhibition and the associated state of anxiety and vigilance through engaging in distal defenses. In the present research, we propose that the reactions to COVID-19 may represent distal defense strategies to the pandemic and, therefore, can be explained and forecasted by the model. Thus, we hypothesized increased perceived COVID-19 threat to lead to a proximal threat response in the form of heightened behavioral inhibition. This, in return, should enhance the use of distal defenses (i.e., several ingroup biases, system justification, and conspiratorial beliefs) overlapping with the reactions observed as a response to COVID-19. This hypothesized mediated effect of increased perceived COVID-19 threat on distal defenses was tested in two preregistered studies: In Study 1 (N = 358), results showed perceived COVID-19 threat to be related to behavioral inhibition and, in turn, to be associated with increased distal defenses (i.e., higher entitativity, control restoration motivation, passive party support). In Study 2 (N = 348), we manipulated COVID-19 threat salience and found results suggesting the distal defenses of ingroup entitativity, system justification, and conspiratorial beliefs to be mediated by the proximal threat response. The results of the present research hint toward a common mechanism through which the seemingly unrelated reactions to COVID-19 can be explained. The results might help to predict future behavior during the COVID-19 pandemic and to design measures to counteract the detrimental effects of the pandemic.
Highlights
Specialty section: This article was submitted to Personality and Social Psychology, a section of the journal Frontiers in Psychology
This hypothesized mediated effect of increased perceived COVID-19 threat on distal defenses was tested in two preregistered studies: In Study 1 (N = 358), results showed perceived coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID19) threat to be related to behavioral inhibition and, in turn, to be associated with increased distal defenses
Confirming H6, H7, and H9, we found indirect effects indicating that people who perceived greater COVID-19 threat showed greater ingroup entitativity, control restoration motivation, and passive party support as a result of a heightened behavioral inhibition system (BIS) activation
Summary
Specialty section: This article was submitted to Personality and Social Psychology, a section of the journal Frontiers in Psychology. The distal defense strategies proposed by the General Process Model of Threat and Defense (Jonas et al, 2014) can occur on a behavioral as well as on a cognitive level and do not need to tackle the threat at hand Such distal defenses may include (but are not limited to) various worldview defenses, such as increased ingroup bias, a higher belief in conspiracies, and a greater level of justification for the political system one is living in – phenomena that we are currently observing in response to COVID-19 as well. To overcome the ensuing anxiety, vigilance, and behavioral inhibition, we expected this enhanced activation of the BIS to be related to an increased use of distal defense strategies in the form of the seemingly irrational reactions outlined above
Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have