ABSTRACT

The COVID-19 pandemic has made death more salient to individuals, which has partly contributed to the amplification of hostility toward others who have different perspectives from oneself. Recognizing that the politicization of COVID-19 and the resulting polarization have become increasingly critical issues, this study investigates how death-related thinking and hope about the pandemic can affect hostility toward outgroups as well as how conservative and liberal media usages moderate the indirect effects of hope. An online survey experiment of people in the U.S. (N = 759) during the pandemic showed that death arousal reduced hope and that these low levels of hope exacerbated hostility toward outgroups in the pandemic context, confirming the positive impact of hope. Importantly, however, our study did not show that hope had a beneficial impact for heavy conservative media users.

摘要

COVID-19 大流行使死亡对个人而言更加突出，这在一定程度上加剧了对与自己观点不同的其他人的敌意。认识到 COVID-19 的政治化和由此产生的两极分化已成为日益严重的问题，本研究调查了与死亡相关的想法和对大流行的希望如何影响对外群体的敌意，以及保守和自由媒体的使用如何缓和死亡的间接影响希望。美国民众在线调查实验（N= 759）在大流行期间表明，死亡唤醒降低了希望，而这些低水平的希望加剧了大流行背景下对外群体的敌意，证实了希望的积极影响。然而，重要的是，我们的研究并未表明希望对重度保守媒体用户产生有益影响。