Open AccessVulnerability to COVID-19, prejudice, and support for economic restrictions towards countries with high level of contamination
Author(s) -
Constantina Badea,
Chloé Touzé,
Cassandra Gedeon,
Jaïs AdamTroian,
Mihaela Boza,
JeanBaptiste Légal
Publication year - 2021
Publication title -
romanian journal of applied psychology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.102
H-Index - 1
eISSN - 2392-845X
pISSN - 2392-8441
DOI - 10.24913/rjap.23.2.01
Subject(s) - vulnerability (computing) , china , pandemic , covid-19 , prejudice (legal term) , development economics , political science , demographic economics , economics , economic growth , psychology , social psychology , medicine , computer security , disease , pathology , computer science , infectious disease (medical specialty) , law
Recent research has extensively investigated how the current COVID-19 pandemic can affect intergroup relations. Much less is known about the impact of COVID-19 on economic and trade decisions. Could the intergroup effects of this pandemic shape support for international economic policies? The aim of this study was to examine the support for restrictive economic policies towards countries with very high levels of COVID-19 contamination (China and Italy) during the first lockdown period (March - April 2020). The survey was conducted in Romania (N = 669) and included measures of COVID-19 vulnerability, prejudice, and support for economic restrictive policy (e.g., to reduce international trade; to set higher taxes). Results showed that higher support for restrictive policies toward China was associated with greater perceived vulnerability to COVID-19 and this link was partially mediated by prejudice toward China. In contrast, support for economic restrictive policies toward Italy was greater when perceived vulnerability to COVID-19 was high, but this relationship between variables was not explained by negative attitudes towards Italy. Practical and theoretical implications are discussed.