Minority Group Inclusion: A Prosocial Risk?

Prosocial risk-taking – taking a risk to benefit others – is a relatively unexplored aspect of prosocial behaviour, which may be particularly relevant to inclusion of outgroups, particularly within settings of intergroup conflict. We explored the extent to which participants perceived inclusion of a minority and conflict-relevant outgroup member to be a prosocial risk, and whether this perception related to their support for minority inclusion. Participants were 297 adults who completed the study online; they read a vignette about novel conflict groups and reported, (i) their perception of minority inclusion, (ii) desire for social distance with the minority group, and (iii) support for minority group integration policies. A substantial proportion of participants (52.19%) reported they viewed minority inclusion as both ‘morally right’ and ‘risky’ (i.e., a prosocial risk). The extent to which participants viewed minority inclusion as prosocial and/or risky predicted their attitudes towards inclusion. Increasing perception of risk was associated with decreased support for inclusion, but this effect was moderated by how morally right inclusion was perceived to be. Findings have implications for peacebuilding; the presence of perceived risk should be understood as a determinant of inclusive prosocial behaviours and mitigated where possible.