“…The finding that disgust proneness at the early stages of the pandemic moderated the association between political conservatism and xenophobia during the COVID-19 pandemic was observed even when anxiety about the COVID-19 pandemic was included as a covariate. Of course, this raises an interesting paradox given that while conservatives were more xenophobic, especially during the initial phases of the COVID-19 pandemic, they have also consistently been found to be less anxious about the pandemic than liberals (e.g., Ruisch et al, 2022). In fact, research has shown that conservatives generally reported lower endorsement of social distancing measures (Gadarian et al, 2021) and mask-wearing (Olatunji et al, 2022), an effect that was mediated by lower perceptions of the health risk posed by the virus (Rothgerber et al, 2020).…”