Altruism in the time of COVID-19: We are all in this together, but who is we?

Abstract

Theory posits that in situations of existential threat, selfish motivations will be outweighed by altruistic ones, and cooperation will be parochial. Yet, the global character of the COVID-19 pandemic makes unclear which level of group inclusiveness individuals will privilege. In an online experiment, participants from the U.S. and Italy chose to allocate a monetary bonus to a charity active in COVID-19 relief efforts at the local, national, or international level, or to keep the bonus for themselves. We found that personal exposure to COVID-19 increased donations relative to those not exposed, even as levels of environmental exposure (numbers of cases locally) had no effect. Only one-third of individuals acted entirely selfishly. Donors predominantly benefitted the local level (state in the U.S., region in Italy); donations toward country and world levels were half as large. Social identity was a moderating factor in both countries. These results confirm and qualify existing theories.

COVID-19 and Pro-Sociality: How Do Donors Respond to Local Pandemic Severity, Increased Salience, and Media Coverage?

“…Further related papers includeAllen IV et al (2021),Andersson et al (2020), Arroyos-Calvera et al (2021,Grimalda et al (2021),Jeworrek and Waibel (2021),Kiss and Keller (2021),Li et al (2020),Lotti (2020),Mahmoud and Meyer (2021),Müller and Rau (2021),Shachat et al (2021),Sheth and Wright (2020),Wong and Yang (2021), and Yue and Yang (2021).6 See Grossman and Van Der Weele (2017) for charitable giving andDelaney et al (2014) for financial decisions under cognitive load.7 Examples of the latter include changes in behavior after disasters(Filipski et al, 2019;Frey et al, 2011;Hanaoka et al, 2018) or after crises and wars(Adena et al, 2020;Voors et al, 2012).…”

A selected literature review of the effect of Covid-19 on preferences

“…A third set of studies examine the effects of the Covid-19 exposure and Covid-19 priming on altruism. Alsharawy et al (2021), Grimalda et al (2021) and Adena and Harke (2022) report a positive effect of the Covid-19 fear, exposure and local news on altruism, respectively. Adena and Harke (2022) and Cappelen et al (2021) find that priming people with Covid-19 enhances altruism compared to the control group.…”

COVID-19 and Pro-Sociality: How Do Donors Respond to Local Pandemic Severity, Increased Salience, and Media Coverage?

“…Further related papers includeAllen IV et al (2021),Andersson et al (2020), Arroyos-Calvera et al (2021,Grimalda et al (2021),Jeworrek and Waibel (2021),Kiss and Keller (2021),Li et al (2020),Lotti (2020),Mahmoud and Meyer (2021),Müller and Rau (2021),Shachat et al (2021),Sheth and Wright (2020),Wong and Yang (2021), and Yue and Yang (2021).6 See Grossman and Van Der Weele (2017) for charitable giving andDelaney et al (2014) for financial decisions under cognitive load.7 Examples of the latter include changes in behavior due to disasters(Filipski et al, 2019;Frey et al, 2011;Hanaoka et al, 2018) or due to crises and wars(Adena et al, 2020;Voors et al, 2012).…”