Information Shocks, Attitudes toward Immigrants, and Hate Crime

Jake Bradley, Facundo Albornoz-Crespo, Silvia Sonderegger, Jesus Rodriguez and Devesh Rustagi

No 21619, CEPR Discussion Papers from Centre for Economic Policy Research

Abstract: There are concerns over the rise in populism and hate crimes targeting minorities in democracies. We examine whether national information shocks triggered by political events play a role. Focusing on two UK events that revealed nationwide anti-immigrant sentiment, we document counterintuitive results: large persistent surges in hate crimes in the post-event periods in areas with pro-immigrant, rather than anti-immigrant, attitudes. We show that the xenophobic minority residing in pro-immigrant areas experience stronger belief shocks from these events, inducing them to update their beliefs about social acceptability of hate. Our findings highlight how heterogeneous priors interact with national events to amplify xenophobic behavior.

JEL-codes: C72 D80 P0 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2026-06
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