Fear and Favoritism in the Time of COVID-19

48 Pages Posted: 2 Sep 2021

See all articles by Baran Han

Baran Han

KDI School of Public Policy and Management

Benjamin Ho

Vassar College

Inbok Rhee

KDI School of Public Policy and Management

Chrysostomos Tabakis

KDI School of Public Policy and Management

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Date Written: July 5, 2021

Abstract

Does fear cause us to "circle the wagons" and favor those in our in-group? Or does fear of the "other" cause us to recognize our common humanity and become more charitable to those we might otherwise consider outsiders? The measurement of this effect is confounded by the fact that some groups respond more strongly to fear than others. We run an online experiment on a nationally representative sample in South Korea in which we induce fear via the autobiographical emotional memory task method and examine the impact on donations to either an in-group charity (the Korean Red Cross) or one that caters to an out-group (the Korea Support Center for Foreign Workers). We find that, while the reported level of fear is negatively correlated with donations to the out-group, the induced fear caused by the experimental intervention is positively correlated with donations to the out-group. We also find that the fear effect depends on political views, media exposure, and social preferences. We confirm our experimental results by looking at how regional attitudes toward out-groups have shifted over time and compare those changes to the average level of reported fear during the COVID-19 pandemic. Places that report the most fear of COVID-19 also have had the greatest increases in prosocial attitudes toward out-groups.

Keywords: Fear, COVID-19, In-group favoritism, Out-group bias

Suggested Citation

Han, Baran and Ho, Benjamin and Rhee, Inbok and Tabakis, Chrysostomos, Fear and Favoritism in the Time of COVID-19 (July 5, 2021). KDI School of Pub Policy & Management Paper No. DP21-07, Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=3914606 or http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.3914606

Baran Han (Contact Author)

KDI School of Public Policy and Management ( email )

P.O. Box 184
Seoul, 130-868
Korea, Republic of (South Korea)

Benjamin Ho

Vassar College ( email )

124 Raymond Avenue
Poughkeepsie, NY 12604
United States

Inbok Rhee

KDI School of Public Policy and Management ( email )

P.O. Box 184
Seoul, 130-868
Korea, Republic of (South Korea)

Chrysostomos Tabakis

KDI School of Public Policy and Management ( email )

P.O. Box 184
Seoul, 130-868
Korea, Republic of (South Korea)

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