The reemergence of Yellow Peril: Beliefs in the Asian health hazard stereotype predict lower psychological well-being.

Abstract

The anti-Asian sentiment in Canada and the U.S during the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic centers on perceptions of East and Southeast Asians as “health hazards”, due to their alleged animal-eating habits, uncleanliness, and tendency to spread diseases. In a preregistered study, we demonstrated that for East and Southeast Asians in Canada and the U.S., their belief that society holds the Asian health hazard stereotype was associated with higher distress and lower life satisfaction. No differences were observed between East and Southeast Asian Americans (n = 352) and Canadians (n = 351), as well as Chinese and non-Chinese participants. Importantly, these effects were robust to pandemic- and discrimination-related stressors. We also demonstrated that Asian health hazard and perpetual foreigner stereotypes were psychometrically distinct. Overall, our findings highlight how perceptions of negative societal views, particularly those reminiscent of the Yellow Peril narrative, are uniquely associated with psychological well-being among East and Southeast Asian Americans and Canadians.

The construction of racial stereotypes and how they serve as racial propaganda

“…Deliberate efforts to stereotype East Asian men as feminine and bar them from traditionally masculine jobs followed—forcing them into stereotypically feminine service work, such as cooking and doing laundry (Chen, 1996). We are hopeful that our review will inspire other researchers to consider the many ways socially constructed stereotypes have maintained systemic racism, as other recent work has done (Lei et al., 2023; Lo et al., 2022). Addressing historical oppression and injustice has the potential to target racist systems from multiple angles.…”

The Construction of Racial Stereotypes and How They Serve as Racial Propaganda

“…Thus, there was a deliberate effort to stereotype East Asian men as feminine and bar them from traditionally masculine jobs (e.g., work in factories)-forcing them into stereotypically feminine service work, such as cooking and doing laundry (Chen, 1996). We are hopeful that this review will inspire stereotyping researchers to consider the various ways socially constructed stereotypes have maintained systemic racism, as other recent research has done (Lo et al, 2022). Additionally, scholars should examine the ways in which marginalized communities have challenged stereotypes as a form of resistance to systemic oppression.…”

From model minority to yellow peril: How threat perceptions and disgust predict anti‐Asian prejudice during COVID‐19

“…Finally, participants completed a measure of disease‐oriented attributions of responsibility to Chinese people. In detail, they rated how much the pandemic spread in the United States because of false yellow peril stereotypes of Chinese people (e.g., Leung, 2008; Lo et al., 2022). Specifically, they indicated how much they agreed that each of these supposed actions and characteristics of Chinese people contributed to the COVID‐19 spread to the U.S.: “eat diseased wild animals,” “are unclean and unhygienic,” “spread a lot of germs,” “are primitive,” and “have no regard for the safety of others” on a scale of 1 (not at all agree) to 7 (very much agree).…”