COVID-19 and Social Injustice Messages Impact on Stress: An Abstract

This project probes the impact of COVID-19 and social injustice message framing on employee stress. Diversity in the workforce is a competitive advantage. Many organizations develop statements to signal their diversity appreciation (Jayne and Dipboye 2004). These messages receive favor from some stakeholders, but ridicule from others (Avery and McKay 2010). The appropriate message framing (self vs. other) can have consequences on employee behavior (Hung and Wyer 2011) and judgment (Chang and Hung 2018). It increases message elaboration and persuasion (Burnkrant and Unnava 1995).

Ongoing messages and images about social injustice have had significant, negative effects on the physical and mental health of Black employees (Smith et al. 2011; Williams 2018). For Black people, the ability to regulate emotions during crisis is imperative. Non-Black people who experience stress from these sources may be less adept at emotion regulation in these instances. It is important to expose the effect of these messages as they may add stress communities experience during a crisis.

A non-student sample of 174 subjects were randomly assigned to one of the three experimental conditions in which they read and considered a COVID-19 message and a social injustice message. The message content was manipulated through the use of other-focus language (“We”), self-focus language (“You”) or the absence of personal pronouns (Cober et al. 2001). Pre- and post-stress measures were completed for each message. The average stress level before the experiment was neutral (x = 4.11) with no significant group differences. Exposure to a COVID-19 message did not significantly change the stress level (t(169) = 1.46, p = .15, x = 4.35). However, exposure to the social injustice message following the COVID-19 message produced significant changes (t(171) = 2.94, p < .001, x = 3.22). The stress level of non-White subjects (x = 2.82) was reduced while the stress level of White subjects (x = 4.99) increased. Self-focus message framing (x = 4.47) received significantly higher evaluations than other-focus message framing (x = 3.69) and the control condition (x = 3.31) (F(2,167) = 5.08, p < .001).

COVID-19 messages had no impact on stress levels. When the COVID-19 message was followed by a social injustice message, stress levels were lowered significantly for non-White subjects while they increased for White subjects. Self-focus message framing was most effective in communicating these messages versus other-focus messaging or non-specific messages.

Culture influences how people perceive and respond to the world (Smith et al. 2009) whether at work or at home. An organization attempting to engage its cultural competence by supporting one demographic group may confront feelings of marginalization by another group. This is an important avenue of inquiry due to the gravity of events that preceded and followed COVID-19. It offers insight into how different groups evaluate corporate responses to social issues. Employees and consumers are watching.