Dropping a Dime: Coethnic Bias and Wartime Informing∗

How important are ethnic considerations in shaping an individual’s willingness to inform — to “drop a dime” — on insurgents in wartime? To date, our theories assume individual calculations are driven by security concerns, not identity issues. We argue instead that coethnic bias, the tendency to favor cooperation with a coethnic, shapes individual decisions about informing and beliefs about the subsequent consequences. We use a survey experiment to measure how individuals respond to calls to participate in the Guardians of Peace program, a widespread campaign by the International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) in Afghanistan designed to encourage informing on insurgents. Administrated in late 2011 to 2,700 respondents across 100 villages, we manipulate the ethnic identity of the program’s endorser across Tajik, Pashtun, and ISAF spokesmen. Using multilevel modeling, we find that the presence of a persistent coethnic bias that shapes support for the program even in the face of exposure to victimization. We also find that ISAF endorsements reinforce coethnic bias among Tajiks and that beliefs about retaliation are also influenced by coethnic considerations.