Integrated threat theory : exploring prejudice toward the “Other” during the outbreak of COVID-19 pandemic : a thesis presented in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in Communication and Journalism at Massey University, Wellington, New Zealand
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Date
2023
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Massey University
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Abstract
Since the first wave of the COVID-19 outbreak, thousands of cases related to discrimination, racism, and hate crimes toward Asian community have been reported all over the world. Utilising integrated threat theory (ITT) as its theoretical backbone, this thesis considers the impacts of perceived threats on anti-Asian attitudes/behaviours spreading at the same time as the global health pandemic. Therefore, this thesis focuses on the following purposes. First, it is crucial to investigate the why Asian groups have been blamed for the spread of COVID-19 worldwide. Second, this study investigates how a contagious virus affects different levels of prejudice toward the “other”, particularly Asians, amid a global health crisis. Third, the author aims to assess the cross-cultural validity of the existing measures to discover whether they are equivalent and applicable in different cultural settings. Finally, this thesis aims to respond to the way that how theoretical concepts and theories have been shifted in thinking about prejudice during the pandemic. The findings support previous studies that showed the use of social media may enhance factors of intergroup threat which may lead to prejudicial attitudes and behaviours. Also, the results reveal that COVID-19 is a stigmatizing disease and perceived as a danger of contact. Therefore, the study findings suggest using ITT as a theoretical guideline to predict prejudice and how publics attribute blame to a specific target group. Besides, it is significant to look beyond theories to better our understanding of public stigma in such a pandemic like COVID-19 because there might be a relation between perceptions of threats and blame attribution.
Key words: integrated threat, prejudice, ethnocentrism, media richness, blame attribution, COVID-19
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COVID-19 Pandemic, 2020, Social aspects, Prejudices, Racism against Asians, Social media and society, integrated threat, ethnocentrism, media richness, blame attribution