The economic limits of empathy? Analysing variation in the attitudes of oppressed minority groups towards refugees

Abstract

How do group characteristics differentially moderate attitudes towards refugees on humanitarian, sociocultural, and economic issues? Building on recent research on group empathy and perspective-taking, we argue that oppressed minority groups will display more positive attitudes towards refugees than dominant majority groups due to empathy triggered by a shared experience of oppression. However, there are economic limits of empathy. Specifically, the empathetic response will not extend to attitudes regarding the economic impact of refugees due to the perceived zero-sum nature of economic competition. Analysis of granular data in Turkey supports the argument, with Kurds (i.e. oppressed group) displaying more positive attitudes on sociocultural and humanitarian issues but not economic. The generalisability of this argument is underscored by a similar analysis of European Social Survey data from 37 countries. The results highlight the importance of group characteristics in understanding attitudes towards refugees, particularly how views vary across groups and topics.