Do People Avoid Morally Relevant Information? Evidence from the Refugee Crisis
The Review of Economics and Statistics
2021
open access
Abstract Combining click data from a swedish newspaper and administrative data on asylum seekers in sweden, i examine whether a larger presence of refugees in a municipality induces people to avoid news that may encourage welcoming the newcomers. Exploiting the unexpected inflow of refugees to Sweden during 2015 and their exogenous allocation across Swedish municipalities, I find that people living in municipalities where the relative number of refugees is larger read fewer articles about asylum seekers. The decrease in clicks is 36% larger for more empathic articles and is correlated with less engagement in activities aimed at welcoming refugees.
- DOI
- 10.1162/rest_a_00934
- Pages
- 1-16
- Language
- en
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