War-related victimization and social distance toward others: Evidence following Russia’s 2022 invasion of Ukraine

Abstract

Scholarship from wide-ranging economic, social-psychological, and evolutionary biological perspectives underscores how war entrenches in-group and out-group divisions. We examine whether Russia’s 2022 invasion of Ukraine has widened the divide between Ukrainians and Russians. Based on a July 2022 nationwide survey of Ukraine with 2000 respondents, we examine social distance toward people who identify as Russian relative to Ukrainian across an array of identity markers (language, ethnicity, citizenship). Compared with pre-war surveys, which showed remarkable intergroup tolerance, social distance appears to have risen since the war began. However, social distance also depends on how identity is framed, where distance is reduced through superordinate civic and semi-inclusive linguistic framings (shared citizenship or a commonly shared spoken language) and increased by ascriptive and exclusionary ethnonational framings. Our results also call into question whether war-related victimization is a primary driver of social divisions arising from conflict. Random priming on victimization experiences reduces social distance toward Russians and does not affect distance to Ukrainians. Self-reported victimization experiences also fail to predict in-group or out-group social distance. We conclude by offering plausible alternative mechanisms to consider for future research.