Duque, Maria; De Coninck, David; Montero-Zamora, Pablo; Sahbaz, Sumeyra; Bautista, Tara; Ertanir, Beyhan; Garcia, Maria F.; Alpysbekova, Aigerim; Scaramutti, Carolina; Laboy, Madison; Vo, Duyen; Acaf, Yara; Vignoles, Vivian; Schwartz, Seth J. (2024). The spillover effect of implicit immigrant stereotypes and incidental pandemic threat. International Journal of Intercultural Relations, 99. 10.1016/j.ijintrel.2024.101939

Text ImmigrantStereotypes_2024.pdf - Published Version Restricted to registered users only Available under License Publisher holds Copyright. Download (767kB) | Request a copy

The uncertainty brought about by COVID-19 in times of mass migration adds an extra layer of perceived threat and competition for resources among host residents in migrant-receiving societies. This convergence of perceived threat potentially exacerbates implicit stereotypes about immigrants and can increase intergroup discord. We used panel data and a linear structural equation model to assess the distinct indirect effects of prejudice, as well as positive and negative intergroup emotions, within the associations of contact with immigrants and perceived COVID-19 threat (not directly related to immigrants) among host residents from 7 European countries, the United States, and Colombia (total N = 13,645). In addition, we examined potential underlying explanations regarding the role that implicit stereotypes of immigrants as disease carriers/ spreaders (spillover effect) may play within the aforementioned associations. We introduce the concept of incidental intergroup threat to refer to the spillover of implicit immigrant stereotypes as disease spreaders onto emotional responses related to the presence of newcomers and pandemic threat perceptions. Our findings offer novel evidence that intergroup emotions exert indirect effects, above and beyond the effects of prejudice, vis-a-vis ` the association between intergroup contact and incidental pandemic threat. These results also suggest that, during global health disasters, spillover effects may yield incidental intergroup threats. Future interventions designed to address intergroup exclusionary reactions during disease pandemics could benefit from integrating threat regulation strategies into efforts to prevent spillover effects and incidental intergroup threats within immigrantreceiving societies.

Interest & Impact

Downloads

0 since deposited on 23 Sep 2024
0 in the past 12 months

Citations

5 Citations in Web of Science ®
6 Citations in Scopus

Search

in Google Scholar™

Services

Actions (login required)

Edit item

Actions (login required)

Edit item