Self-Protection or Discrimination? How Information Sources Mediate Perceived Threats and Avoidance Behaviors toward Immigrants during Covid-19

Chia-Jung Tsai, Max-Planck Institute for Demographic Research

During the COVID-19 pandemic, in addition to frequent occurrences of discrimination and attacks, the avoidance targeting specific ethnic groups has also had a significant impact on immigrants' lives and mental well-being. Using data from a cross-national online survey with 92,979 responses collected in the early outbreak across seven European countries and the United States, this study examines avoidance behaviors, including avoiding contacts, products or food and restaurants, towards Asian, Iranian and Italians in the early outbreak. This study examines how the relationship of avoidance behavior and the perceived threat to the pandemic is mediated by the trust of sources of COVID-19 information. Overall, people who place greater confidence in the information from social media networks and acquaintances are more likely to perceive threats and adopting avoidance behaviours towards three targeted ethnic groups, especially avoiding visiting restaurants owned by the targeted ethnic groups. Furthermore, the study reveals how information consumption can accumulate, leading to higher levels of threat perception and avoidance actions against immigrants. To go beyond the discussion of regular self-protective behaviors (e.g. mask wearing) in recent studies, this study aims to highlight the dilemma between self-protective behaviors and discriminations in the public health communication during COVID-19.

Keywords: Inequality, Disadvantage and Discrimination, Population, Shocks and Pandemics

See paper.