Support to Syrian refugees in Turkey: The roles of descriptive and injunctive norms, threat, and negative emotions

This research investigates individual’s support for social provisions and rights of Syrian refugees in Turkey. Support is examined in relation to perceived threat of Syrian refugees and negative emotions in combination with the perception of family and friends considering Syrian refugees a threat (negative descriptive social norm) and whether these significant others morally support these refugees (positive injunctive norms). A questionnaire study was conducted among Turkish participants (N = 565), and the results show that perception of threat was associated with negative emotions which, in turn, were related to less support to Syrian refugees. Additionally, perception of threat was associated with less support through negative emotions when perceived descriptive norms were strong. Further, perceived injunctive norms were associated with more support to Syrian refugees, but less so when people had stronger negative emotions. These findings suggest that with negative descriptive norms, threat-based negative emotions are associated with less support to Syrian refugees, and that stronger negative emotions make the association between positive injunctive norms and support weaker.