RT Article
T1 Violent Assault on a Chinese Man: COVID-19 Psychosocial Resource Loss Diminishes Right Wing Authoritarianism Variability in Societal Reactions
JF Journal of interpersonal violence
VO 38
IS 7/8
SP 5542
OP 5563
A1 Johnson, James
A2 Sattler, David
A2 Van Hiel, Alain
A2 Dierckx, Kim
A2 Luo, Shanhong
A2 Vezzali, Loris
LA English
YR 2023
UL https://krimdok.uni-tuebingen.de/Record/1837990832
AB We examined whether prejudice-related personality characteristics (i.e., right wing authoritarianism [RWA]) and COVID-19–driven psychological resource loss might predict perpetrator-directed punitive responding (i.e., support for criminal charges) to a COVID-19–related attack on a Chinese victim by a White male. Across two studies, participants completed an RWA measure and reported the extent they had experienced COVID-19–related psychosocial resource loss. They then read a passage describing the COVID-19–related physical assault. For both studies, at low resource loss levels, low RWA participants reported greater punitive responding toward the perpetrator than high RWA participants. This RWA–punitive responding association was mediated by greater victim-directed suffering sensitivity (i.e., empathy) for Study 1 and greater anti-perpetrator reactions (i.e., hate crime perceptions) for Study 2. The RWA association with the relevant outcome variables (i.e., suffering sensitivity, anti-perpetrator bias, and punitive responding) was eliminated at high psychological resource loss levels. Specifically, low and high RWA participants reported similar reactions. While previous research has demonstrated that high RWA individuals tend to report greater outgroup-directed prejudicial responses due to COVID-19–driven perceptions of threat, our findings demonstrate that the COVID-19 pandemic can also elicit feelings of resource loss that can diminish the egalitarian reactions typically reported by low RWA individuals. In sum, we demonstrate that experiencing difficult life circumstances such as COVID-19 psychosocial resource loss can diminish supportive reactions toward victimized minority group members even among low RWA participants who are typically expected to be more sensitive to the struggles of those who are disadvantaged.
K1 Hate crime
K1 resource loss
K1 right wing authoritarianism
DO 10.1177/08862605221123301