SignificanceThe recent flow of refugees around the world evokes diametrically opposed reactions by the host countries’ citizens. Many people are willing to help refugees, whereas many others are not. Yet, the underlying mechanisms that lead to refugee helping versus rejection are not well understood. We use an economic game to investigate how economic and psychological factors shape citizens’ helping behavior toward refugees. We find that costs associated with refugee helping are a key determinant of citizens’ willingness to do so. It is especially people with a higher degree of prosociality that are willing to bear the personal cost of helping. Emphasizing the neediness of refugees as well as their integration efforts increases the willingness among citizens to provide help.

No abstract

No abstract

In real-world intergroup conflict, not all in-group members are equally threatened by the out-group. Yet, the impact of intragroup payoff asymmetry on the inclination to mutually cooperate during intergroup conflict and therefore to protect against out-group attacks, i.e., the “conflict-cooperation effect,” has not been investigated so far. In Study 1, we replicate previous research by using a novel experimental game paradigm, showing increased intragroup cooperation in the presence (vs. absence) of out-group threat under intragroup payoff symmetry. In Study 2, we find a conflict-cooperation effect among group members who are threatened (victims) as well as among group members who are not threatened (helpers) by the out-group. Intragroup cohesiveness, i.e., perceived closeness among in-group members, mediates the conflict-cooperation effect, particularly among selfishly-oriented individuals. Our results support the notion that intergroup conflict may have favored the evolutionary adaption of intragroup cooperation even when the in-group members were asymmetrically threatened by intergroup conflict.

No abstract