The Politics of Public Health Threat. Exposure to Covid-19, Emotional Responses, and Attitudes towards coping with In- and Outgroups

Existing research on the consequences of a high prevalence of infectious diseases shows that a public health threat is related to an increased aversion and avoidance of unfamiliar and out-group targets and to a strengthened cohesion with familiar and in-group targets (Ackerman et al. 2018: 3). Nevertheless, in the absence of real-world data from pandemics, our present knowledge is based solely on artificial experiments, indirect measurements, and rather abstract macro-indices of pathogen stress. Against this background, the starting point of our project is the observation that the outbreak of the Covid-19 pandemic has provided the unique opportunity to evaluate the influence of exposure to a real public health threat on attitudes towards coping with in- and out-groups. Tying together the insights of the behavioral immune system hypothesis with standard political science models of emotional processing, the central focus of the planned project lies in three questions: (1) How does the Covid-19 threat experience shape the formation of socio-political attitudes related to the aversion and avoidance of unfamiliar and out-group targets and the cohesion with in-group targets? (2) What emotional responses does exposure to the Covid-19 pandemic trigger and how are these reactions responsible for the formation of these stances? (3) Which conditions shape the impact of the Covid-19 threat experience on attitudes towards coping with in- and out-groups? In answering these questions, the project radically departs from familiar research traditions of pathogen threat analysis. First, the envisaged project provides new empirical evidence relying on real-world data. Rather than operating with indirect instruments, the project relies on real-world experiments and actual data of the Covid-19 pandemic at an individual and contextual level. Second, the project develops new theoretical arguments. Existing theories are mostly tailored to analyze the impact of disgust as a pathogen avoidance-oriented emotion while widely neglecting other emotional experiences. This project aims to study emotions more broadly. Third, our study develops new policy recommendations. Based on the analysis of unique panel data and cross-national and sub-national comparisons, we learn which measures are best suited to moderate the effects of the Covid-19 threat experience. To access the above-mentioned research questions, we base our statistical analyses on already existing data. The applicant conducted four surveys involving 24,000 respondents (April/May 2020; late November 2020 to January 2021, April/May 2021, January/February 2022) in six European countries (France, Germany, Italy, Spain, Switzerland and the United Kingdom). Moreover, own panel data for Switzerland between April and October 2020 (3 waves; between 600 and 1,800 respondents) has been compiled. This database is supplemented by experimental studies conducted in March 2020 and March 2021. Beyond the Covid-19 related data, all these data sets contain numerous items concerned with the relevant questions of the research endeavor. The project will be carried out by the PI and one post-doctoral student, supported by a student assistant. Together, we strive for publication of articles in leading international journals covering varying aspects. Moreover, the objective is to publish a synthesis of research findings in an encompassing book monograph with a leading international publisher.