The distress caused by the economic environment is thought to lead to higher levels of group bias. Using an incentivized online survey of a close-to-representative sample, we test the causal relationship between group bias of nationals against non-nationals resulting from a negative economic shock. We take advantage of the large and unexpected shock triggered by the restrictions implemented to mitigate the spreading of COVID-19, which led to a nearly exogenous assignment of economic distress. We find no difference in group bias between individuals who were and were not affected by the shock. This effect is robust to various specifications and does not depend on the amount of blame that can be attributed to others for the current economic situation of decision-makers. We also show the same result for students whose job prospects were dimmed due to the pandemic. This finding counters the notion that (nationalistic) group bias is caused by economic distress and provides insight into how economic shocks may or may not affect polarization.