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Current Event Paper

Jazmine M. Rivera

Regis University

PSY250: General Psychology

Dr. Roberta A. Mancuso

November 15, 2023

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Summary of Current Event

At the beginning of 2021, COVID-19 emerged and became a world pandemic. Its origins

were China, and people all across the globe were spreading hate to China and its people for

causing the epidemic. There was a study done in the United States that explored the United

States’ feelings toward Asian Americans. This study was, “An Investigation of the Relationship

Between Chinese Phenotypicality and COVID-19-Related Prejudice and Discrimination” (Choi

et al., 2023). The study investigates the relationship between Chinese phenotypically and

COVID-19. Phenotypically means a person looks at someone else and compares their looks to a

common trait to others. The study used a scenario-based experiment in the form of a news story

the participants would see the employee gave COVID-19 to a customer, to see how the

participants (of all different races and ages) responded. Then measured negative beliefs of Asian

Americans, emotional reactions, and demographic information (Choi et al., 2023). The study

found that after the experiment was complete it influenced the participants' emotional reactions

and beliefs about Asian Americans negatively (Choi et al., 2023). The overall conclusion of the

study was that prejudice and discrimination were present during COVID-19 toward Asian

Americans.

Importance of Article

Furthermore, this article is important in illustrating whether the United States has

changed since its past. During World War II, the United States put Asian Americans in camps.

They did this after the bombing of Pearl Harbor when Japan attacked the United States warship

in Hawaii. These Camps were located all over the United States even in the state of Colorado.

The United States government put Asian Americans in these camps based on two things: fear of

not knowing who the enemy was, and based on looks. Asian Americans at this time had to leave
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their lives behind to go to these camps, just because they looked like the “enemy”. These camps

were very damaging to Asian Americans. Before this event Asian Americans would still follow

their culture, customs, and beliefs but, after this event they stopped and tried to live the

American life (.Yamashiro, J. P., 2022). They abandon their old ways to never have to experience

this again. This study shows how discrimination and prejudice are still very present towards

Asian Americans.

Relation to Course Material

In Addition, prejudice and discrimination have been used a lot so far in this passage but, a

definition has not been given. According to Fiske (2023), prejudice is bias against people in a

group, it can be emotional based or based on an evaluation. An example of prejudice is Tommy

has negative view of all teenagers when Tommy meets Bob who is a teenager. Tommy already

has a negative view of Bob. Discrimination is behavior bias based on stereotyped beliefs about a

group of people (Fiske 2023). Example of Discrimination: Bobbie doesn't want to invite Avaya

to her birthday party because Avaya is too hyper (associated with being young). Bobbie is

discriminating against Avaya. There is an established difference between the two words, and they

are very important in understanding the study.

Prejudice was proven in the case study during the scenario-based experiment in the form

of a news story. Participants were randomly assigned to read one of two scenarios: one restaurant

employee didn’t distribute COVID-19 to customers, and the other employee did spread

COVID-19 to customers (Choi et al., 2023). The next part of the experiment was to make the

employee Chinese or White, then manipulate it to either be high or low in Chinese

phenotypicality (Choi et al., 2023). Based on Fiske's (2023) definition of prejudice, after this

evaluation of Chinese phenotypically and the spread of COVID-19 the participants would have a
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negative view of Asian Americans. In other terms the experiment found the participants would

act differently to the employee if they were Chinese or white. If the Chinese employee has more

characteristics of being Chinese and American, the participants would be more prejudiced

against the employee after finding out they had COVID-19. In conclusion, the participants came

in with the knowledge of COVID-19 origins and must have a bias on that fact. Thus, the

participants would have more prejudice to an Asian American who had the character traits of

their culture and gave COVID-19.

Lastly, how was discrimination proven in the study? This study used a measure of hate

perceptions; participants were asked to rate seven hate incidents and state the appropriateness

and seriousness of each one (Choi et al., 2023). The seven incidents were punching, spitting,

shoving, knifing, shunning, refusal of service, and verbal harassment; the participants were then

asked to rate how appropriate these actions were against the employees from 1 being not serious

to 7 very serious (Choi et al., 2023). The results suggest that the Chinese phenotypically

influenced the participants' endorsement of discrimination (Choi et al., 2023). Discrimination

was shown in the study by the results of the test after the participants went through the

experiment. They became okay with discrimination against Asian Americans after the Chinese

Phenotype gave Customers COVID-19. They formed a stereotype of all Asian Americans with a

high phenotype. After the Asian Americans gave COVID-19 to the customer, it became ok if

they got treated badly. Proving how discrimination was present in the study.

To conclude, this study illustrates how discrimination and prejudice against Asian

Americans are still a real problem in the United States. This illustrates how we still have this

negative perception, first starting with the Pearl Harbor bombing which was done by Japan,

which led to the incarceration of all Asian Americans because of fear. Now we are having hateful
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views on Asian Americans again because COVID-19 originated in China. Some United States

cultures will always clump groups of people together based solely on looks, they don't get to

know the Asian Americans, they just assume they are all the same. This concludes that

prejudices and discrimination are still very present in the United States and it hasn't changed

towards Asian Americans since World War II.

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References

Choi, S., Burd, K. A., & Choi, A. (2023). Looking hateworthy: An investigation of the

relationship between Chinese phenotypicality and COVID-19-related prejudice and

discrimination. Race and Justice, 13(1), 105–129

https://doi-org.dml.regis.edu/10.1177/21533687221138962

Fiske, S. T. (2023). Prejudice, discrimination, and stereotyping. In R. Biswas-Diener & E. Diener

(Eds), Noba textbook series: Psychology. Champaign, IL: DEF publishers. Retrieved

from http://noba.to/jfkx7nrd

Yamashiro, J. P. (2022). More than Half: Multiracial Families in the World War II Japanese

American Incarceration Camps. Journal of Child & Family Studies, 31(3), 721–734.

https://doi.org/10.1007/s10826-022-02255-8