Past Victimization and Responses to the COVID-19 Pandemic

Abstract

Abstract Experiences of historical victimization affect dominant responses to threat. Nations and ethnic groups that suffered from forms of collective violence such as genocides, cleansing, wars, violent conflicts, and occupations generate a specific mindset that guides their behavior, emotions, and cognitions. Ultimately, mistrust and conspiracy theories that are common among victimized groups could be considered a paradoxical form of adaptation to adverse life conditions. In the situation of a global pandemic, such as the COVID-19 epidemic, this mindset becomes clearly maladaptive. It leads to lower trust in authorities and institutions, disobedience regarding health restrictions, irrational behavior, stockpiling supplies, and belief in conspiracy theories and pseudoscience. This chapter presents evidence from studies conducted in historically victimized countries and minority groups that showed how the focus on the ingroup’s past victimization leads to maladaptive responses to COVID-19. These findings are discussed using the framework of victimization as an adaptive process. Future research is suggested to include societal-level factors in the analyses of peoples’ responses to pandemic threat.