Pathogen avoidance versus anger: the motivation underlying Asian hate

Following COVID-19, discrimination and violence against individuals of Asian descent have been reported across the US and Western Europe. While these behaviors appear to suggest a desire to avoid being infected given the association between Asians and the origins of COVID-19, attacks against these individuals would be counterintuitive to such motivation as close contact is involved and would ironically increase the chances of infection. As studies have yet to address this contradiction, we sought to uncover the actual motives behind the antagonism displayed against Asians during the pandemic. Guided by principles of pathogen avoidance and intergroup behaviors, our findings revealed that both pathogen avoidance and anger predicted discriminatory behaviors against individuals of Asian descent, where anger was a stronger predictor than pathogen avoidance. More importantly, our findings showed that anger, but not pathogen avoidance, predicted aggressive discrimination.