Incidental fear reduces empathy for an out-group’s pain.

Humans generally fear those different to them (i.e. an out-group) in the same way they fear natural predators.But fear pushes us to derogate others, whether they constitute a threat or not.Research has examined how fear associated with specific intergroup relations interferes with how individuals relate to in-group and out-group members.However, we know relatively little about how intergroup relations might be affected by incidental emotions.We tested how incidental fear affects empathy towards in-group and out-group members.We found that exposing participants to fearful imagery was sufficient to reduce empathy, but only in response to out-group suffering.We discuss how these findings provide insight into how fear is often leveraged to encourage social tribalism.