The global outbreak of novel coronavirus disease COVID-19 has caused intergroup discrimination associated with the disease to become increasingly prominent. Research demonstrates that the attitudes and behaviors of third-party observers significantly impact the progression of discrimination incidents. This study tested a parallel mediating model in which the attribution tendencies of observers influence their behavioral intentions through the mediating effect of the emotions of anger and contempt. The first two studies confirmed the proposed model with discrimination incidents reported against “returnees from Wuhan” and “returning workers from Hubei.” Study 3 further manipulated the attribution tendencies of observers, providing empirical evidence for the causality from attribution tendencies to emotions, confirming the validity of the model. These findings enrich the cognitive (attribution)–emotion–action model, further enhancing our understanding of the role of third parties in intergroup conflicts, with implications for the management of people’s emotions and behaviors in social crises.

新型冠状病毒病COVID-19在全球爆发，导致与该疾病相关的群体间歧视日益突出。研究表明，第三方观察员的态度和行为对歧视事件的进展有显着影响。本研究测试了一个平行中介模型，其中观察者的归因倾向通过愤怒和蔑视情绪的中介作用影响他们的行为意图。前两项研究证实了所提出的模型，并报告了针对“武汉归国人员”和“湖北归国工人”的歧视事件。研究3进一步操纵了观察者的归因倾向，为归因倾向与情绪之间的因果关系提供了经验证据，证实了模型的有效性。这些发现丰富了认知（归因）-情感-行动模型，进一步增强了我们对第三方在群体间冲突中的作用的理解，对社会危机中人们的情绪和行为的管理具有影响。