NaDiRa short study: Solidarity in the pandemic

Solidarity with all? Intergroup aid behaviour in times of Corona

National Monitoring of Discrimination and Racism (NaDiRa)

Project team:

• Ruta Yemane
• Jonas Rees
• Ralf Wölfer
• Susanne Veit
• Hannah Arnu
• Lara Aithal

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Project description:

The project investigated whether the same level of solidarity is shown to all members of society in the Corona pandemic. For this, we explored the following questions: Do marginalised groups receive as much help from the neighbourhood as members of the majority society? Does it have an effect on helping behaviour if people suspect that they are more likely to catch the disease from certain people than from others? Can corresponding new ethnic hierarchies in helping behaviour also be observed in the Corona crisis, which has produced particularly anti-Asian racist narratives? What role does ingroup favouritism (the tendency of people to favour members of their own group) play in the help offered?

Results:

Within the framework of a nationwide field experiment, we distributed various fictitious requests for help in eleven major German cities. In this way, we wanted to investigate group-specific help behaviour towards names read in German, Turkish and Chinese. The evaluation shows that the test person with a German name received the most offers of help (Angelika Schneider, n = 298). The Chinese test person received the second most responses (Xiu Ying, n = 244), and the Turkish test person received the least (Ayse Yilmaz, n = 227). More than 500 people took part in the follow-up survey, to which we invited all people who had responded to the request for help as part of an educational notification.

Surprising insights:

We found a high level of prosocial behaviour: More than every third request for help was answered. However, clear disadvantages for ethnic minorities emerged: Women with a German-sounding name received significantly more offers of help than women with a Turkish or Chinese-sounding name. Overall, significantly more women (71%) offered help than men. In the follow-up survey, it became clear that the helpers were characterised by high empathy values. 

Publications & Presentations:

DeZIMinutes #3 - Solidarität mit allen? Hilfeverhalten gegenüber Angehörigen ethnischer Minderheiten in Zeiten von Corona, Lara Aithal, et al. (2021)

Ruta Yemane, Hannah Arnu: Solidarität mit allen? Intergruppen-Hilfeverhalten in Zeiten von Corona. Presentation at the digital colloquium "Sociological Perspectives on the Corona Crisis" of the WZB, Berlin, 10.02.2021.

Media reports:

Lisa Duhm: Benachteiligung von Migranten – Warum Ayse in der Pandemie weniger Hilfe bekommt als Angelika. SPIEGEL, 03.04.2021

Short studies in preparation of the Racism Monitor:

In order to prepare a comprehensive racism monitor, DeZIM called on academics* from the DeZIM research community in 2020 to develop innovative study ideas. These should extend existing research projects, pursue new and innovative approaches or build an infrastructure to research racism. By 2021, more than 120 researchers at the six locations of the DeZIM research community had conducted a total of 34 short studies. These are divided into six thematic priorities:

• Health system
• Education system and labour market
• Institutional racism
• Dealing with experiences of racism
• Participation and the media
• Racist ideologies and attitudes

Funding: Federal Ministry of Family Affairs, Senior Citizens, Women and Youth (Third-party funding)