New study found evidence linking Trump’s rhetoric about COVID-19 to surge in anti-Asian sentiment on social media. The study suggests that Trump’s references to the coronavirus as the “Chinese virus” or “Kung flu” increased anti-Asian hate tweets during early months of the pandemic.

I’ve linked to the news release in the post above. In this comment, for those interested, here’s the link to the peer reviewed journal article:

https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/ssqu.13387

From the linked article:

A recent study published in Social Science Quarterly has found evidence linking former President Donald Trump’s rhetoric about COVID-19 to a surge in anti-Asian sentiment on social media. The study suggests that Trump’s repeated references to the coronavirus as the “Chinese virus” or “Kung flu” had a significant effect, increasing the number of anti-Asian hate tweets posted during the early months of the pandemic.

The COVID-19 pandemic saw a sharp rise in anti-Asian sentiment, particularly in the United States, where many people of Asian descent faced verbal harassment and even physical assaults. But researchers wanted to understand why this happened. Historical patterns suggest that minority groups are often blamed during public health crises. However, not all such crises lead to widespread discrimination, so what made the COVID-19 pandemic different?

Previous research has identified several possible reasons for this phenomenon, which scholars refer to as “othering”—the process of scapegoating marginalized groups for broader societal issues. For example, in past epidemics like smallpox or Ebola, immigrants or ethnic minorities were often blamed for the spread of disease.

The results of the study provided strong support for the elite cueing hypothesis. The researchers found that, following Trump’s use of the term “Chinese virus” on March 16, 2020, there was a noticeable increase in anti-Asian hate tweets. This spike occurred across many parts of the country, including areas where there had been little or no such hate speech prior to Trump’s comments.

Will you guys quit telling him his tactics are working?

I’ll have to check my notes on this one, but…..no … kidding?

Wow, what a crack science team they have there. What’s next, they find evidence water links to wetness?

As I remember it, that wasn’t just on social media, there was a big uptick in real life attacks on Asian perceived peoples.

People were scared and angry, Trump gave them something to be angry at.