Uncritical Patriotism and Belief in COVID-19 Conspiracies

Abstract

The outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic has also led to many conspiracy theories. While the origin of the pandemic in China led some, including former US president Donald Trump, to dub the pathogen “Chinese virus” and to support anti-Chinese conspiracy narratives, it caused Chinese state officials to openly support anti-US conspiracy theories about the “true” origin of the virus. In this article, we study whether nationalism, or more precisely uncritical patriotism, is related to belief in conspiracy theories among normal people. We hypothesize based on group identity theory and motivated reasoning that for the particular case of conspiracy theories related to the origin of COVID-19, such a relation should be stronger for Chinese than for Germans. To test this hypothesis, we use survey data from Germany and China, including data from the Chinese community in Germany. We also look at relations to other factors, in particular media consumption and xenophobia.

A Cross-Sectional Survey of National Chinese College Students’ Mental Status during COVID-19 Pandemic: Using a Compiled Stress Response Questionnaire

“…Respondents may still be affected by social desirability, that is, showing behaviors that society hopes for, expects, and accepts. China is a country that particularly emphasizes collectivism [57], nationalism [58], and patriotism [59]. Finally, we investigated the subjective psychological states of college students but did not conduct observations from a third-party perspective.…”

Beyond National and Ethnic Boundaries: Transnational Solidarity during the Covid-19 Pandemic from the Case of the Chinese Diaspora in France

“…Transnational solidarity in the sense of cross-border social solidarity should be considered "overlapping solidaristic networks" (Gould, 2007). They can include social solidarity developed between individuals, communities, and organization of those with different cultural backgrounds and national identity as well as identity-based relationships among dispersed members of a community or polity-for example, the loyalty and patriotism felt by Chinese migrants toward their region of origin and their volunteering to help in China's fight against the pandemic (Long, 2022;Rieger, 2022). In both cases, solidarity is characterized by "feeling with" mutual concern and mutual assistance (Gould, 2007;Mason, 2000).…”