Newly published research from Kasper Otten, with colleagues Vincent Buskins, Wojtek Przepiorka, and Naomi Ellemers, has found that Dutch train travellers are more likely to help freeriders if they do not have a migration background.
In an experiment conducted in various Dutch train stations, the SCOOP researchers hired 10 male actors (5 of native-majority background, 5 of migrant background) to approach male passengers and ask if they could follow them through the security gate.
Unexpectedly, the researchers found that a significant number of people are willing to help freeriders. But, the experiment also showed that travellers are much more likely to help someone that looks like them. Of the 801 interactions the researchers recorded, Dutch-majority people were helped through the security gate 67% of the time, whilst travellers with Turkish or Moroccan backgrounds were helped only 49%. In fact, Kasper and his colleagues found that travellers were more likely to point out that fare dodging is illegal when they were approached by the migrant-background actors.
You can read Kasper’s open access article in Pscyhological Science here.
