Fear and Favoritism in the Time of COVID-19

Abstract

When faced with fear, do people favor those in their in-group or out-group? The measurement of this effect is confounded by the fact that some individuals respond to frightening events more strongly than others. We run an online experiment in South Korea in which we experimentally induce fear and examine its impact on a behavioral outcome measure of donations to either an in-group charity or an out-group one. We find that while the self-reported level of fear is negatively correlated with outgroup donations, experimentally induced fear positively affects such donations. We also find that the fear effect depends on social preferences, but is not significantly affected by political views or media exposure.