The science behind why people fear refugees

Vox:

Fear in the wake of a terrorist attack is normal. It’s natural and human. But it can also be counterproductive — and even cruel.

After the attacks in Paris last week, the gut reaction of many politicians around the world was to shut the door to Syrian refugees for fear that terrorists may be lurking among them. For those like New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie or House Speaker Paul Ryan, the “better safe than sorry” approach is winning out. Christie insisted he wouldn’t want even a 5-year-old orphan refugee to enter his state.

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The reaction over refugees looks more comprehensible in the context of years of psychological work on conflict and emotion. Terrorist attacks set off one of our most fundamental gut reactions: When threatened, we draw clear lines between “us” and “them.”

“When attacks happen, there’s a [perceived] high cost in mistaking in-group, out-group members for one another,” says Mina Cikara, who runs the intergroup neuroscience lab at Harvard. “So when you see an attack like the one in Beirut or the one in Paris, it highlights those boundaries between ‘us’ and ‘them.’ It means those boundaries become more closely circumscribed; they become tinier.”

Read the whole story: Vox