Covid-19 crisis and hostility against foreigners

• Published in: European economic review 2021-08, Vol.137, p.103818-103818, Article 103818
• Main Authors: Bartoš, Vojtěch, Bauer, Michal, Cahlíková, Jana, Chytilová, Julie
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: COVID-19 pandemic; Experiment; Hostility; Inter-group conflict
• ISSN: 0014-2921; 1873-572X; 0014-2921
• DOI: 10.1016/j.euroecorev.2021.103818

•Out-group hostility often rises during health pandemics.•We elicited hostile behavior among a nationally representative sample.•Greater salience of the Covid-19 crisis increases hostility against foreigners.•The results underscore the importance of not inflaming anti-foreigner sentiments. Harmful behavior against out-group members often rises during periods of economic hardship and health pandemics. Here, we test the widespread concern that the Covid-19 crisis may fuel hostility against people from other nations. Using a controlled money-burning task, we elicited hostile behavior among a nationally representative sample (n = 2,186) in the Czech Republic during the first wave of the pandemic. We provide evidence that exogenously elevating the salience of the Covid-19 crisis increases hostility against foreigners from the EU, USA and Asia. This behavioral response is similar across various demographic sub-groups. Further, we observe zero to small negative effects for both domestic out-groups and in-groups, suggesting that the salience of Covid-19 might negatively affect behavior not only towards foreigners but to other people more generally, though these findings are not conclusive. The results underscore the importance of not inflaming anti-foreigner sentiments and suggest the need to monitor impacts of the crisis on behavior in the social domain.