Fear alone did not drive anti-Asian attacks during COVID, researchers say

Anti-Asian racism during the COVID-19 pandemic was fueled more by anger than fear of infection, according to new research from Murdoch University in Australia. The study found that people who viewed Asians as responsible for the spread of the virus were more likely to support hostile or aggressive behavior toward them. Researchers said the findings help explain why discrimination during the pandemic frequently escalated beyond avoidance into harassment and violence.

Researchers led by psychologist Amy Lim examined whether anti-Asian discrimination during COVID-19 was driven more by disease avoidance or anger toward groups blamed for the pandemic. The study surveyed 170 white American adults and 99 participants recruited through an Australian university, measuring attitudes toward Asians alongside emotional responses tied to COVID-19.

Researchers said fear of illness may explain why people avoid groups perceived as contagious, but it does not explain why many anti-Asian incidents during the pandemic became openly confrontational. “From a disease-avoidance perspective, one might expect people to distance themselves from those they perceive as posing an infection risk,” Lim said. “However, this does not explain more confrontational or aggressive responses, which could increase exposure rather than reduce it.”

Participants who expressed higher levels of anger toward Asians were significantly more likely to support aggressive or exclusionary behavior, according to the study. In the U.S. sample, pathogen avoidance accounted for 5% of the variance in aggressive discrimination, while anger accounted for an additional 71.1% after researchers added it to the model. In the Australian sample, anger was positively correlated with aggressive discrimination, while pathogen avoidance showed no significant relationship to discriminatory behavior measured in the study.

Anti-Asian harassment and violence rose sharply during the pandemic as Asians and Chinese communities became tied to the virus in political rhetoric and online discourse. Stop AAPI Hate received 10,905 reports of hate incidents against Asian American and Pacific Islander people in the U.S. between March 2020 and December 2021.

Verbal harassment accounted for 63% of reported incidents, while physical assaults made up 16.2%. Nearly half occurred in public spaces such as streets, parks and public transit. Women submitted nearly two-thirds of all reports collected by the organization.

Researchers studying online behavior during the pandemic documented similar spikes in anti-Asian hate speech after phrases such as “Chinese virus” and “kung flu” entered mainstream political rhetoric. One large-scale study found local COVID-19 diagnoses were associated with increases in racist Google searches and anti-Asian Twitter posts, with stronger effects on days when President Donald Trump linked China to the virus in social media posts.

Organizations such as The Asian American Foundation (TAAF) responded to concerns over escalating rhetoric by launching the Anti-Hate Rapid Response Toolkit, a digital resource offering safety guidance, reporting information and community response tools for Asian American communities. TAAF also collaborated with Stop AAPI Hate on developing the “Documenting Anti-AAPI Hate Codebook,” which standardized how anti-Asian hate incidents are identified and recorded.