In Aid We Trust: Hearts and Minds and the Pakistan Earthquake of 2005

2016/08/24 by Tahir Andrabi, Jishnu Das · 1 voice · 99 citations
Social Sciences · #Culture, Economy, and Development Studies #Demographic economics #Demography #Development economics #Economics #Experimental Behavioral Economics Studies #Geography #Political science #Population #Scale (ratio) #Social Capital and Networks #Sociology

paper · pdf · doi:10.1162/rest_a_00638

published in The Review of Economics and Statistics 99(3), 371-386 (The MIT Press)

openalex publication_date 2016/08/24 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/15

Abstract

In 2005 an earthquake in northern Pakistan led to a significant inflow of international relief groups. Four years later, trust in Europeans and Americans was markedly higher among those exposed to the earthquake and the relief that followed. These differences reflect the greater provision of foreign aid and foreigner presence in affected villages rather than preexisting population differences or a general impact of disasters on trust. We thus demonstrate large-scale, durable attitudinal change in a representative Muslim population. Trust in Westerners among Muslims is malleable and not a deeply rooted function of preferences or global (as opposed to local) policy and actions.

Citations

• A meta-analytic test of intergroup contact theory.
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Discussions

• The sudden and illegal elimination of all US aid personnel worldwide immediately reduces US soft power. It makes Americans less secure, everywhere. Economists have shown that pro- and anti-American [bsky, 245 points, 9 comments]

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