In a recent article, I shared research suggesting that COVID-19 is likely to herald a rise in social unrest after analysis of past epidemics highlighted the very real risk involved in the aftermath of the virus. As if that wasn’t enough, new research from the University of Pittsburgh also suggests that xenophobia might also be on the rise as a result of COVID.
The researchers hypothesize that during emergencies, such as pandemics, we tend to hunker down and look out primarily for those in our immediate family, or at best those within our “in-group”. This could cause us to act in a hostile way towards those outside of this group.
“During epidemics, humans tend to become overly sensitive, so any sort of physical abnormality that somebody has suddenly becomes a potential indicator of infection. We become much more bigoted, we pay way more attention to things that differentiate people from what we perceive as our own phenotype. People who look different from us and sound different from us, which, of course, leads to a lot more xenophobia,” the researchers explain.
Growing hostility
The researchers studied how black garden ants react when they’re exposed to a fungus. It emerged that they typically clustered together in small groups, which limited the spread of the disease. It’s a behavior pattern that the researchers believe is common among non-human primate species, which helps to lower the spread of parasites.
They argue that humans often share these biological impulses to separate into modular social groups, and when pathogens spread, we become hyper-vigilant and can be especially prone to error. It’s an impulse that the researchers believe we’re especially vulnerable to during COVID-19.
“We shouldn’t discriminate against different groups in our social distancing, or in our efforts to work together to beat the virus,” they say. “But I think our natural, evolved tendencies would be to associate only within our ingroups. We have to fight that natural antipathy towards people who differ from ourselves, and not shut down.”
