Countering Asian American hate: media primes, feelings, opinions and bystander intervention in the context of COVID-19

Abstract

The increase in verbal and physical aggressions directed at Asian Americans during the COVID-19 pandemic and after has brought into focus a need to understand the reasons for such aggressions and identify interventions. Our study addresses these needs by investigating whether photographs accompanying a news report depicting Asian Americans positively or negatively in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic activate positive or negative perceptions of Asian Americans and whether the valence of the photographs differentially influences intent to intervene in anti-Asian aggressions. In a 2 (image: positive vs. negative) X 2 (political ideology: liberal vs. conservative) mixed between-subject online experiment with adult white Americans, we found that liberals showed more positive perceptions and greater intent to intervene with the negative photos compared to the positive photos, while conservatives showed more negative perceptions and lower intent to intervene with the negative photos. Implications of these findings for activation and activation control theories of primes and biases are discussed. Some recommendations on how the results might guide media content providers to mitigate the spread of anti-Asian aggressions are also provided.