Perceptions of Group Boundaries between Amish and Non-Amish during the COVID-19 Pandemic

Social environments shape group identity. Environmental changes force adaptation in varying ways. Disruptions created by the COVID-19 pandemic provide an opportunity to empirically study how group identities form, transform, and establish and reinforce collective boundaries. All social groups discern between “us,” referencing in-group members from “them,” referring to outsiders. High-tension religious communities tend to reinforce pre-defined group boundaries. This study examines COVID-19-related discourse in March and April of 2020, communicated within Amish and conservative Mennonite communities. We draw data from a large sample of scribe letters published in The Budget and The Diary , correspondence newspapers providing dispatches from several hundred Amish and Mennonite communities worldwide. We found that for the Amish and Mennonites, the pandemic created an opportunity within the community narrative to reinforce core values of the community (such as respect for government authority, caring for people’s needs, and the virtues of simplicity as a way of life), which in turn served to unite group members closer together while also reinforcing differences which exist between them and outsiders.