BRIEF RESEARCH REPORT article
Front. Psychol.
Sec. Personality and Social Psychology
Volume 16 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2025.1614848
This article is part of the Research TopicSocial Psychological Perspectives on Threat: Understanding Climate, Economic, and Health ThreatsView all 15 articles
Trait Xenophobia is More Strongly Related to Maladaptive Beliefs and Pandemic Health Behaviors than Affective Symptoms
Provisionally accepted
- 1UC San Diego Health, University of California, San Diego, San Diego, California, United States
- 2Stanford University, Stanford, California, United States
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Background. Xenophobia is a prevalent phenomenon with important personal and societal consequences. As expressed by individuals, it could be influenced by psychological or psychiatric factors. Negative affect is an important feature of xenophobia, and both increased in prevalence during the COVID-19 pandemic, suggesting a potential association. We tested whether trait-like xenophobic beliefs relate to common affective symptoms, compared to other maladaptive beliefs such as conspiratorial beliefs, and in turn how symptoms versus beliefs relate to pandemic-related health behaviors. Methods. 520 American adults completed validated online, self-report questionnaires addressing xenophobia, conspiracy beliefs, symptoms of paranoia, anxiety and depression, fear of COVID-19, and inclination to engage in pandemic-related behaviors (precautions, testing and vaccination). Results. Statistically significant, positive bivariate correlations of moderate strength were observed between xenophobia and conspiracy beliefs both general (conspiracy-mindedness) and specific (about vaccines), and significant but weaker positive correlations between xenophobia and paranoia, anxiety and depression. Exploratory factor analysis of symptoms and beliefs showed a 2-factor solution accounting for 66% of total variance. Xenophobia loaded strongly on a Maladaptive Belief factor. Regression models of pandemic health behaviors showed both factor scores as significant independent predictors of health behaviors, with Maladaptive Belief contributing a relatively larger share of variance. Conclusions. Xenophobia is more strongly associated with other maladaptive beliefs than with common psychiatric symptoms. The former are also relatively more closely associated with disinclination to engage in adaptive pandemic-related health behaviors. These findings may have consequences for the mitigation of the personal and public health effects of a global pandemic.
Keywords: Xenophobia, Conspiracy theories, paranoia, Anxiety, Depression, pandemic, Health Behavior
Received: 19 Apr 2025; Accepted: 20 Oct 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Minzenberg and Yoon. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence: Michael Minzenberg, minzenberg@gmail.com
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