Shared suffering predicts prosocial commitment among Turkish earthquake survivors.

Sevgi Demiroglu, Claire White, Dimitris Xygalatas, Danielle Morales, Andrew Ainsworth, Harvey Whitehouse

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Article in Scientific reports, 2025. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Not yet cited in PubMed.

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5 · Who and what money

Authors and funding

6 authors.

Sevgi DemirogluDepartment of Anthropology, University of Connecticut, Storrs, USA. sevgi.demiroglu@uconn.edu.

Claire WhiteDepartment of Religious Studies, California State University, Northridge, USA.

Dimitris XygalatasDepartment of Anthropology, University of Connecticut, Storrs, USA.

Danielle MoralesDepartment of Sociology, California State University, Northridge, USA.

Andrew AinsworthDepartment of Psychology, California State University, Northridge, USA.

Harvey WhitehouseSchool of Anthropology & Museum Ethnography, University of Oxford, Oxford, England, UK.

Funding

European Research Council #694986Templeton Religion Trust TRT-2021-10490

6 · The paper itself

Abstract

Previous research suggests that the perception of shared emotion associated with personally transformative events can foster a strong form of social bonding known as 'identity fusion', which motivates pro-group action. Here we test predictions from this model among Turkish citizens and Syrian refugees following the catastrophic earthquakes in Turkey on February 6th, 2023. The lead researcher administered surveys in person to 120 Turkish earthquake survivors in the most heavily affected areas. In line with our predictions, mean levels of identity fusion significantly increased with perceived shared suffering for both Turkish and Syrian groups. Further, identity fusion predicted prosocial commitment, measured by the expressed willingness of earthquake survivors to volunteer assistance to disaster victims. Remarkably, participants were as likely to pledge help to other Turkish earthquake survivors as they were to their own families. This study contributes to a growing understanding of how shared suffering facilitates group bonding and cooperation, both within and across social groups.

Indexed as

EarthquakesStress, PsychologicalSurvivorsAdultFemaleHumansMaleMiddle AgedRefugeesSurveys and QuestionnairesSyriaTurkeyYoung AdultEarthquakeIdentity fusionProsocialitySyriaTurkey

Identifiers

PMID40128236

DOI10.1038/s41598-025-90921-4

PMCPMC11933673

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Textmetadata

LicenceCC BY-NC-ND

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Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.