Episodic simulation of helping behavior in younger and older adults during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Abstract

Imagining helping a person in need increases one’s willingness to help beyond levels evoked by passively reading the same stories. We examined whether episodic simulation can increase younger and older adults’ willingness to help in novel scenarios posed by the COVID-19 pandemic. Across three studies, we demonstrate that episodic simulation of helping behavior increases younger and older adults’ willingness to help during both everyday and COVID-related scenarios. Moreover, we show that imagining helping increases emotional concern, scene imagery, and theory of mind, which in turn relate to increased willingness to help. Studies 2 and 3 also showed that people produce more internal, episodic-like details when imagining everyday compared to COVID-related scenarios, suggesting that people are less able to draw on prior experiences when simulating such novel events. These findings suggest that encouraging engagement with stories of people in need by imagining helping can increase willingness to help during the pandemic.

Effect of situation similarity on younger and older adults’ episodic simulation of helping behaviours

“…However, these findings are somewhat at odds with a growing body of research demonstrating that episodic simulation of helping behaviour (i.e., imagining helping others—another task that requires problem-solving) similarly increases willingness to help in younger and older adults 17 – 19 . For instance, both cohorts exhibit greater willingness to help after imagining themselves helping a person in need, relative to a semantic control task 17 , 18 .…”

“…Indeed, events simulated in familiar, compared to unfamiliar, locations are reported as being clearer 24 . Moreover, young adults have been shown to produce more semantic-like details when imagining unfamiliar events 25 , and this work has recently been extended to older adults 19 . In a recent series of experiments, Ryan et al 19 examined whether episodic simulation could increase younger and older adults’ willingness to help in unfamiliar scenarios posed by the COVID-19 pandemic.…”

“…Moreover, young adults have been shown to produce more semantic-like details when imagining unfamiliar events 25 , and this work has recently been extended to older adults 19 . In a recent series of experiments, Ryan et al 19 examined whether episodic simulation could increase younger and older adults’ willingness to help in unfamiliar scenarios posed by the COVID-19 pandemic. Participants read a series of short scenarios, half of which depicted people in need in everyday situations, and half depicted COVID-related problems.…”

“…This effect is thought to stem from the fact that episodic simulation can make events seem more plausible and ultimately, shape one’s intentions and subsequent behaviour 2 , 20 – 23 . Moreover, in addition to increasing one’s prosocial intentions, imagining future helping scenarios also increases participants’ ratings of scene vividness similarly in both younger and older adults, as well as the degree to which they consider the thoughts and feelings of the person in need 17 – 19 . These phenomenological experiences are thought to mediate the effect of episodic simulation on willingness to help, in that imagining helping increases emotional concern for the person in need and vividness of the imagined scene, which in turn contribute to an increased intention to help 17 – 19 .…”

Me, myself, and everyone else: Potential impacts of episodic processes on national and personal memories.

“…Remembering one’s past experiences of helping others, or imagining helping others, increases the willingness to help in the future (Gaesser & Schacter, 2014). Moving beyond the laboratory, when individuals were asked to imagine helping others during scenarios related to the COVID-19 pandemic, an ostensibly negative collective event, they indicated an increased willingness to help others in the future (Ryan et al, 2022). Relatedly, recalling the heroic behaviors of others during the 2013 Boston Marathon bombing was associated with increased reports of helping behaviors in the following 6 months (Ford, Gaesser, et al, 2018).…”