Pro-social attitudes towards ethno-religious out-groups during the COVID-19 pandemic: A survey experiment in five countries

To what extent are individuals willing to help others during the pandemic and how is this influenced by their religiosity, political trust and political orientation? The pandemic might have affected the pro-sociality towards out-groups. On the one hand, one could argue that inter-religious boundaries are more salient during the pandemic. On the other hand, religion also has the potential to unmake prejudice and lead to increased solidarity especially during a pandemic. This paper examines pro-social attitudes among 7,000 residents in Britain, Ireland, Germany, Serbia and Sweden by showing a fictitious scenario of an older neighbor who needs his groceries to be picked up from a nearby supermarket due to cocooning. Respondents were asked to indicate their willingness to help. The online survey experiment follows a 3x2x2 factorial design varying the ethno-religious origin of neighbors signaled by the name (Alexander vs. Mohammed), the length of their residence (< 1 year, 10 years, entire life) and if groceries, or groceries and beer need to be collected. We assess the role of religion, political orientation, trust, health, and a range of socio-demographic variables. Generally, individuals who show lower levels of trust into political institutions and display a stronger tendency towards the political right are less willing to help. As a result, we find that the pandemic has left the vulnerable more vulnerable, i.e. those of minority origin and those who have spent less than a year in a country and would probably need the support the most. However, there are national differences with Germany and Serbia penalizing neighbors of different ethno-religious origin most consistently, and Ireland and Britain the least. In Sweden, the solidarity with Mohammed who lived his entire life there is not significantly different from the solidarity with a native. Overall, religiosity turns out to decrease the willingness to help a neighbor named Mohammed particularly in Ireland and Sweden but not in other countries. This suggests that in states which tend to be located at the ends of the secular-religious spectrum, religious out-group boundaries are more salient. Overall, our results demonstrate the salience of boundaries between ethno-religious groups.