A refugee, like me: why the Golden Rule matters in an era of mass migration

Tolerance was revealed through thoughtfulness, empathy and perspective-taking where the students were able to “step into another person’s shoes”.

Empathy and perspective-taking was revealed in responses such as, “I would ask you, how would you feel if you were an Aboriginal person and would always be served last?” (a 12-year-old) or, “How would you would feel if you were Asian and a shopkeeper wouldn’t serve you?“ (a 15-year-old).

Such responses were favoured more by females. And it’s not surprising that a greater number of females evoked the Golden Rule, as plenty of studies show that females tend tend to appeal to empathy more often than males.

Empathy and moral judgements

The ability to take someone else’s perspective and empathise are important motivators of “pro-social” behaviour; that is, actions that promote social acceptance and friendship.

Children develop empathy and perspective-taking as part of their moral development. One of the motivators for tolerance is empathy.

That means tolerance develops when empathy is encouraged, because it allows a child – or adult – to enter the shoes of another.

Crucially, while tolerant attitudes lead to acceptance of other people’s differences, this is a two-way street; exposure to different cultures and attitudes can increase the ability of children and adolescents to empathise and relate.

Research also demonstrates (somewhat intuitively) that successful cross-cultural contact depends on the quality of interaction.

Conditions for successful interaction include: the opportunity to bond, support from authority figures and a cooperative situation. Also vital is an initial open-mindedness, and finding at least some common ground.

Integration, not assimilation, is the key

As Europe and other places around the world prepare to meet an influx of refugees, governments must play their part in supporting positive contact between different cultures, particularly for young people.

Integration, whether social, political or cultural, into another society is difficult and will take time.

Some Muslims groups who have moved to Sweden, to give one example, have integrated better than others. Bosnian Muslims have integrated well in contrast to immigrants from Iraq who are less successful. Iraqi integration into work is strikingly low.