Comparisons Between COVID-19 Stigma and Other Stigmas: Distinct in Explicit Attitudes and Similar in Implicit Process

Abstract

Since the outbreak of COVID-19, the public stigma associated with COVID-19 has emerged. To better understand the COVID-19 stigma, the present research conducted three studies on 1,493 Chinese participants from the outbreak to the recovery period of the COVID-19 pandemic to examine the psychological mechanisms of COVID-19 stigma by comparing it with other disease-related stigmas in terms of their explicit and implicit processes. Study 1 and Study 2 jointly demonstrated that the public endorsed more stigma toward the COVID-19 related people (i.e., the COVID-19 patients) relative to the other disease-related people (i.e., the SARS patients, people with flu) in multiple explicit aspects, including emotional, motivational, cognitive, and social processing. Using the implicit association test (IAT), Study 3 found no significant difference in the implicit measures of the COVID-19 vs. the SARS groups, which further revealed that the pandemic stigmas (i.e., COVID-19 and SARS) were similar at the implicit level. These findings suggest common (implicit level) but distinct (explicit level) psychological processes of the pandemic-related stigmas, which provide reference to policymakers in formulating suitable interventions to deal with COVID-19 stigma and a newly generated potential stigma and provide psychological support for the public in the future.

Keywords: COVID-19; implicit association test; pandemic; public stigma; stigma.

FIGURE 1

Negative attitudes toward the COVID-19 group (i.e., the COVID-19 patients, people who recovered from COVID-19), the SARS group (i.e., the SARS patients and people who recovered from SARS), and the control group in Study 1. Higher scores indicate more negative attitudes. ***p < 0.001.

FIGURE 2

Participants’ explicit attitudes toward the COVID-19 patients versus the SARS patients in terms of emotional (i.e., fear and sympathy), cognitive (i.e., attribution and regulation), motivational (i.e., avoid, help, and the willingness to become neighbors), and social dimensions (i.e., social harmfulness, social deviant, and trust) in Study 2. Higher score indicates a higher level of possibility. ^∗p < 0.05, ^∗∗p < 0.01, ^∗∗∗p < 0.001.

FIGURE 3

Implicit attitudes of the COVID-19 group and the SARS group. The reaction times (RT) of the incongruent and congruent trials in the COVID-19 and SARS conditions. **p < 0.01, ***p < 0.001.