Did the Outbreak of COVID-19 and Individual Exposure to It Increase In-Group Bias in the United States? An Experimental Investigation of Inter-Ethnic Trust

Gianluca Grimalda, Fabrice Murtin, David Pipke, Louis Putterman and Matthias Sutter ()
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Gianluca Grimalda: University of Passau
Fabrice Murtin: OECD Statistics and Data Directorate
David Pipke: Kiel Institute for the World Economy
Louis Putterman: Brown University
Matthias Sutter: Max Planck Institute for Behavioral Economics, Bonn

No 2026_04, Discussion Paper Series of the Max Planck Institute for Behavioral Economics from Max Planck Institute for Behavioral Economics

Abstract: Pathogen-stress and terror-management theories predict that lethal epidemics heighten parochial cooperation. We test this prediction experimentally in two nationally representative U.S. samples surveyed before and at the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic. We compare trust and expected trustworthiness across the two waves in monetarily incentivized trust games involving non-Hispanic Whites, African Americans, and Hispanics. We find significant ingroup favoritism in both waves. However, the aggregate ingroup premium fell by about one-half between waves. This decline was concentrated among left-leaning and White respondents. Conversely, both African Americans and Hispanics displayed significant ingroup bias in both waves. While non-Hispanic Whites tended to reduce their ingroup bias in expected trustworthiness, the opposite was found for African Americans. Respondents more exposed to COVID-19 displayed higher inter-group trust, altruism and expected trustworthiness than others. These results contradict the hypothesis that lethal epidemics intensify parochialism, also suggesting that the response may be diversified across groups.

Keywords: COVID-19; Pandemic; Inter-group Relationships; Parochialism; Ingroup; Outgroup; Discrimination; Prosociality (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: D01 D63 D91 I14 J15 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2026-04
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