Solidarity With Ukraine? How Fear- and Moral-Based Motivations Explain the Psychological Tug-of-War in the German Public

Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine beginning in February 2022 has resulted in tens of thousands of casualties and initiated the fastest growing refugee movement in Europe since World War II. Ukraine’s military, economic, and humanitarian position relies significantly on international support, including Germany. However, German citizens’ solidarity with Ukraine has been put to the test due to public concerns about economic and social repercussions. In this article, we investigate the motivational and dispositional predictors of political solidarity with Ukraine. In a representative survey of German citizens in September 2022 (N = 1,210), we examined the role of moral- and fear-based motivations and ideological, cognitive, and sociodemographic predictors of political solidarity with Ukraine. Our analyses indicate that political solidarity with Ukraine was in part motivated by moral convictions (β = .25) and compromised by fears about economic and societal consequences (β = −.21). Conspiracy mentality (β = −.22), populist voting (β =−.19), right-wing orientation (β = −.08), and living in East Germany (β = −.08) were additional negative predictors for solidarity with Ukraine, while national identification with Germany emerged as facilitating factor for solidarity (β = .16). Moral- and fear-based motivations partly mediated the effect of these factors on political solidarity in a structural equation model, explaining 34% of variance. Our findings highlight the power of psychological factors—particularly conspiracy mentality, moral convictions, and existential fears—in shaping political solidarity with Ukraine, illustrating how diverse motivations and concerns influence public support in the context of war and international conflict.