The psychological burden of the COVID-19 pandemic is associated with anti-systemic attitudes and political violence

Abstract

Western democracies, most notably the United States, have recently experienced a wave of protests, some characterized by lethal violence. While police brutality served as a catalyst, the eruption of protests coincided with the COVID-19 pandemic---the most severe global crisis of the 21st century. The pandemic has caused, inter alia, social stress, marginalization, and loss of economic status, which constitute psychological elicitors of aggression. Given this, we examined whether the psychological burden of the COVID-19 pandemic promotes anti-systemic attitudes and behavior. Analyses of two-wave panel data collected in April--July 2020 in the US, Denmark, Italy, and Hungary (N = 10,699), indicated that COVID-19 burden increased sentiments to ``watch the world burn'' and intentions to engage in political violence but not in peaceful protests. In the US, COVID-19 burden furthermore predicted engagement in the most violent actions during the George Floyd protests and counter-protests, including physical confrontation with the police. These results suggest that a second wave of the COVID-19 pandemic during the fall of 2020 may increase the risk of political violence in Western democracies, especially in contexts of potential political instability, such as the US presidential election.

Public acceptance of COVID-19 vaccines: cross-national evidence on levels and individual-level predictors using observational data

“…This challenge might be further deepened during the COVID-19 pandemic as research suggests that the stress of the pandemic and the restrictions itself fuel antisystemic beliefs. 40 The results thus, first, emphasise the general importance of building trust prior to the onset of crises and of investing significant resources into maintaining trust as a crisis unfolds. 41 Second, for most short-term oriented communication purposes, the results suggest that the best communication targets are the consequences of infections for the self and close others and debunking of myths.…”

Predictors of nursing students’ intention to receive COVID‐19 vaccination: A multi‐university study in Saudi Arabia

“…Overall, the findings showed the considerable challenges that complicate students' intention to be vaccinated, and these challenges could present problems in the vaccination programs for this group of population. These issues may have been deepened further by the COVID-19 outbreak, as one study reported that the pandemic causes stress and restrictions, which then cause anti-systemic views and beliefs of individuals (Bartusevicius et al, 2020). Moreover, 'pandemic fatigue' has been observed (Michie et al, 2020), which further negatively affects the willingness of students to be vaccinated, and this willingness is likely to be negatively influenced as the COVID-19 outbreak continues.…”

The pathogen paradox: Evidence that perceived COVID-19 threat is associated with both pro- and anti-immigrant attitudes

“…In the US, for instance, non-compliance with COVID-19 preventive measures were more likely to occur in areas with higher cultural emphasis on individual freedom (Bazzi et al, 2020). In addition to symbolic threats to freedom and individualistic values, other protests emerged as a consequence of threatened fairness and justice-related values (see Bartusevicius et al, 2020;Duque-Franco et al, 2020) due to the pandemic's effect as an amplifier of socioeconomic inequalities (Davidai et al, 2020). COVID-19 spread -due to its foreign origin -may also activate elements of 'ownership threat', whereby one's group rights to decide about their own country, cultural values, and local policies are felt to be taken away (Nijs et al, 2021).…”