| Abstract | Among the distressing events of the early months of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020 was the appearance of news reports of atypical acts of aggression all over the world. This study tested the hypothesis that the aversive conditions of the early months of the pandemic triggered a type of interpersonal aggression that may be called aggressive pathogen-spreading: spitting, coughing, and sneezing bodily fluids on a target person with the goal of causing distress and/or infection. English-language news reports about people spitting, coughing, or sneezing at others were retrieved from a news archive for two periods: March 1 to May 31, 2019, before the pandemic and March 1 to May 31,2020, during the pandemic. Information about the pathogen-spreading act, the target, the perpetrator, and the setting were coded and recorded. The 2020 sample included aggressive pathogen-spreading cases in 15 countries on 5 continents. In support of the hypothesis, the findings indicated that more cases of aggressive pathogen-spreading were reported during the pandemic in spring, 2020 (N = 325), than before the pandemic in spring, 2019 (N = 79). In 2020, 70% of perpetrators were males and 43% of perpetrators claimed to be infected with the SARS-CoV-2 virus. Frontline key workers (62.4%), passersby (12.3%), and retail workers (9.5%) were most frequently targeted. The findings support the hypothesis that aversive conditions such as those that accompany global pandemics can trigger interpersonal aggression that poses serious threats to public health. |
