Fears and social ties have been frequently discussed during the COVID-19 pandemic; however, it is still insufficiently examined how people have developed or mitigated social ties, bias and inter-group conflicts caused by fear. This review examined relevant COVID-19 literature and the psychology of anxiety, distress and aggression to consider how these adverse behaviours might be neutralised by cognitive flexibility. The results showed that social ties function as both risk and protective factors. The importance of social ties was repeatedly described as alleviating loneliness; nevertheless, people also expressed stigma-related anxiety (fear of criticism via empathic distress) associated with peer pressures and hostile vigilantism. Social ties and empathy have strengthened human cohesion and helped reconcile relations, but they also reinforced unfavourable biased bonds, terror and rumours that benefited in-group members while discriminating against out-group individuals. Furthermore, cognitive flexibility may assuage these negative consequences through shifting attention and perspective. Context-adjusted viewpoints and reciprocal dialogues seem crucial. The subsequent mitigation of misunderstandings, fear-induced bias, and maladaptive distress appraisal may lead to more reasonable and flexible recognition of social ties. The significance of this conclusion is in its potential for implementing intervention programmes to reduce pandemic-induced fear, and it could help to address other relevant issues, such as refugee crises and displaced people, a phenomenon that is globally developing discrimination, stigma and polarised blaming. It is worth further investigating how flexibility and inter-group empathy help pursue humanitarianism.

在 COVID-19 大流行期间，人们经常讨论恐惧和社会关系；然而，人们如何发展或减轻由恐惧引起的社会联系、偏见和群体间冲突仍然没有得到充分研究。这篇综述检查了相关的 COVID-19 文献和焦虑、痛苦和攻击的心理学，以考虑这些不良行为如何被认知灵活性中和。结果表明，社会关系既是风险因素，也是保护因素。社会关系的重要性被反复描述为减轻孤独感；然而，人们也表达了与同侪压力和敌对治安意识相关的耻辱相关焦虑（害怕因移情痛苦而受到批评）。社会纽带和同理心增强了人类的凝聚力，有助于调和关系，但它们也强化了不利的偏见纽带、恐怖和谣言，这些因素使群体内成员受益，同时歧视群体外的个人。此外，认知灵活性可以通过转移注意力和视角来减轻这些负面影响。情境调整的观点和相互对话似乎至关重要。随后对误解、恐惧引起的偏见和适应不良的痛苦评估的缓解可能会导致对社会关系的更合理和灵活的认识。这一结论的意义在于它有可能实施干预计划以减少大流行引起的恐惧，它可能有助于解决其他相关问题，例如难民危机和流离失所者，这种现象正在全球范围内发展歧视、污名和两极分化的指责.