‘Intersubjective Empathy’ and the desecuritisation of migration: assessing public attitudes and support for refugees in the UK

Extensive research has identified the mechanisms by which threat perceptions fuel hostility towards migrants, but less is known about how to counteract these successfully. Outgroup empathy has been proposed as a promising solution, yet its application is hindered by conceptual inconsistencies, methodological challenges, and an overreliance on self-reported measures. To address these limitations, we introduce Intersubjective Empathy (IE), a novel relational construct that measures how accurately ingroup members recognise the emotions of outgroup members given their circumstances. Using surveys of 1,534 British citizens and 484 young Syrian refugees conducted after the 2015 ‘refugee crisis’ and Brexit referendum, we operationalise and validate IE, demonstrating its association with prosocial attitudes, emotions, and behaviours. We find that the ability to accurately recognise how refugees feel is linked to reduced threat perceptions at the identification stage and an increased sense of duty to help them at the mobilisation stage. However, we also identify diminishing returns, where empathy at higher levels may backfire, potentially undermining successful desecuritisation. By integrating insights from securitisation theory, social psychology, and political behaviour, this article highlights both the potential and limits of empathy in fostering desecuritisation, advocating for more rigorous and politically sustainable approaches to reducing hostility towards refugees.