Effects of scenario‐based attribution on collective emotions and stigma toward persons with COVID‐19: A cross‐sectional survey

BACKGROUND AND AIMS: During this COVID‐19 pandemic, many people experience and share emotions such as fear, anxiety, sadness, anger, and disgust, which can be regarded as collective emotions. This study investigated the effects of scenario‐based attribution for serious diseases on collective emotions and social stigma. METHODS: Participants were 297 healthy adults who met two conditions: (1) not having tested positive for COVID‐19 (including their family members or close friends) and no experience of self‐quarantine; and (2) not having been diagnosed with lung cancer, and not having family members or close friends diagnosed with it. Three hundred participants were recruited, through a company conducting online surveys. A total of 297 data sets were analyzed, excluding data supplied by three participants who might have responded unreliably to the filler question. Scenarios were recorded according to attribution type (internal vs. external) and disease (COVID‐19 vs. lung cancer). A 2 × 2 factorial design was used, whereby participants were randomly assigned to one of four conditions. RESULTS: The COVID‐19 condition showed higher scores on the perceived risk and fear of the disease compared to the lung cancer one. The COVID‐19/internal attribution condition showed the highest scores for fear and anger toward scenario characters, and the lung cancer/external attribution condition showed higher sympathy scores than other conditions. Although attribution to COVID‐19 was not directly related to social stigma, it could evoke negative emotions toward infected people. CONCLUSION: The findings suggest that attributions of serious diseases such as COVID‐19 to infected persons can influence collective emotions and the level of social stigma associated with the disease. Attention to the collective emotions and stigma associated with disease is a key component for communities and countries to recover from and respond to its impacts.