The impact of the 2018 North Korea-United States summit on South Koreans' altruism toward and trust in North Korean refugees

Abstract

To verify whether a common superordinate identity promotes intergroup social capital, we analyze survey data from three cross-sectional surveys conducted in South Korea one week before, two days after, and six months after the 2018 North Korea-United States summit in Singapore. A comparison of responses from the first and second surveys reveals that the summit positively changed South Korean natives' altruism toward and trust in North Korean refugees by encouraging a sense of co-ethnicity among the natives. From an additional analysis of data from the third survey, we further find that the positive effects of the summit persisted even after six months.