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Reductions in perceived COVID-19 threat amid UK's mass public vaccination programme coincide with reductions in outgroup avoidance (but not prejudice) - PubMed

. 2022 Oct;61(4):1286-1304.

doi: 10.1111/bjso.12537. Epub 2022 Mar 31.

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Reductions in perceived COVID-19 threat amid UK's mass public vaccination programme coincide with reductions in outgroup avoidance (but not prejudice)

Rose Meleady et al. Br J Soc Psychol. 2022 Oct.

Abstract

It has long been proposed that perceptions of threat contribute to greater outgroup negativity. Much of the existing evidence on the threat-prejudice association in the real world, however, is cross-sectional in nature. Such designs do not adequately capture individual-level changes in constructs, and how changes in constructs relate to changes in other theoretically relevant constructs. The current research exploited the unique opportunity afforded by the mass COVID-19 vaccination programme in the United Kingdom to explore whether reductions in pathogen threat coincide with reductions in outgroup prejudice and avoidance. A two-wave longitudinal study (N1 = 912, N2 = 738) measured British adult's perceptions of COVID-19 threat and anti-immigrant bias before and during mass vaccine rollout in the United Kingdom. Tests of latent change models demonstrated that perceived COVID-19 threat significantly declined as the vaccine programme progressed, as did measures of outgroup avoidance tendencies, but not prejudiced attitudes. Critically, change in threat was systematically correlated with change in outgroup avoidance: those with greater reductions in perceived COVID-19 threat were, on average, those with greater reductions in outgroup avoidance. Findings provide important and novel insights into the implications of disease protection strategies for intergroup relations during an actual pandemic context, as it unfolds over time.

Keywords: COVID-19; behavioural immune system; pathogen avoidance; prejudice; threat; vaccination.

© 2022 The Authors. British Journal of Social Psychology published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd on behalf of British Psychological Society.

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Figures

FIGURE 1
FIGURE 1

Conceptual depiction of a BLCS model. Parameters a and b = regression of latent change scores on initial values. Parameter c = correlation among baseline values, and Parameter d = correlation among latent change scores

FIGURE 2
FIGURE 2

Conceptual diagram depicting an alternative BLCS model in which conservatism (Time 1) is included as a predictor of initial levels and change in perceived COVID‐19 threat and modern racism

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