Crisis Complicates Peacebuilding in Postconflict Societies: COVID-19 Support Triggers Negative Outgroup Emotions Among Individuals With Low and High Prejudice

Despite research on intergroup relations showing that prejudice influences the effect of intergroup help on outgroup empathy, less is known about the interplay of prejudice and intergroup help on outgroup emotions, trust, and perceptions in postconflict societies, particularly during the COVID-19 pandemic. In response, we examined whether outgroup prejudice moderates the effect of outgroup help with fighting COVID-19 on intergroup affect and intergroup perception. In two studies (N_total = 811), participants with low prejudice exhibited more negative intergroup emotions and perceptions (i.e., perceived outgroup dominance) and less outgroup trust when the outgroup’s country (i.e., a former opponent) had supported their country in fighting the pandemic than when it had supported another country or when support had been exchanged between other countries. In addition, participants with high prejudice exhibited more negative intergroup emotions and perceptions and less outgroup trust in all experimental conditions and perceived outgroup dominance explained the observed effects for participants with low prejudice. This article discusses what these results imply for theory and practice concerning postconflict intergroup relations.