The coronavirus pandemic has fundamentally shifted the way human beings interact, both as individuals and groups, in the face of such a widespread outbreak. This paper seeks to investigate the effects of COVID-19 on intergroup emotions and attitudes within an intractable intergroup conflict, specifically, through the lens of the Korean conflict. Using a two-wave, cross-sectional design, this study was able to track the profound psychological changes in intergroup emotions and attitudes both prior to the pandemic and during its onslaught. Results of these two wave representative samples show that South Korean citizens demonstrated higher levels of fear of their neighbors in North Korea after the outbreak of COVID-19 than before. In turn, this led to increased societal support of hostile government policies towards North Koreans. Conversely, the same participants exhibited higher levels of empathy towards North Koreans during the pandemic, which led to a higher willingness to collaborate with their outgroup. This dual effect on intergroup emotions within intractable conflicts brings forth new avenues from which societies may be able to restrain the destructive influence of the COVID-19 threat on intergroup relations — as well as harvesting its constructive potential for reconciling warring intergroup relations.

面对如此广泛的疫情，冠状病毒大流行从根本上改变了人类作为个人和群体的互动方式。本文旨在通过朝鲜冲突的视角，研究 COVID-19 对棘手群体间冲突中群体间情绪和态度的影响。这项研究采用两波横断面设计，能够追踪大流行之前和爆发期间群体间情绪和态度的深刻心理变化。这两波代表性样本的结果显示，在 COVID-19 爆发后，韩国公民对朝鲜邻居的恐惧程度比之前更高。反过来，这导致社会对政府针对朝鲜人的敌对政策的支持增加。相反，这些参与者在大流行期间对朝鲜人表现出更高水平的同理心，这导致他们更愿意与外群体合作。棘手冲突中的这种对群体间情绪的双重影响带来了新的途径，社会可以通过这些途径抑制 COVID-19 威胁对群体间关系的破坏性影响，并收获其调和交战群体间关系的建设性潜力。