Exposure to the Covid-19 pandemic and generosity

Abstract

The Covid-19 pandemic is having dramatic consequences across the world and has generated a public debate about how exposure to a pandemic environment affects social behavior: along with signs of increased solidarity such as people hand-making masks for others, we also observe selfish and antisocial behaviors such as harnessing of essential goods. This is a key question because prosocial behaviors are necessary to cope successfully with the pandemic, but the existing evidence provides no clear prediction regarding how prosociality adapts during such a negative shock. Using data from an online experiment with ~1k participants from southern Spain, we study how social behavior evolved in a six-day period in which Covid-19-associated deaths in Spain increased from 900 to above 3000. In our experiment, participants could earn lottery tickets for a €100-prize and decided whether to donate a fraction to a charity upon winning. We find that actual donations decreased in the period under study, particularly among older people—those who face higher mortality rates. Gender, another determinant of Covid-19-associated mortality, does not predict the decrease. In addition, while self-reported social concerns did not change in the same period, expectations about others’ donations decreased along with actual donations. The data suggest that expectations partially mediate the effect of exposure on behavioral change, but they cannot account for the effect of age. Since age is at the center of public debate about mortality while gender receives considerably less attention, our results point to the potential role of public information in behavioral adaptation.

A daily diary study on adolescents’ mood, empathy, and prosocial behavior during the COVID-19 pandemic

“…Interestingly, recent studies in adults have suggested that during the pandemic there is a shift towards pandemic-specific prosocial behaviors. For example, these studies have demonstrated that the pandemic makes individuals more likely to prioritize society's problems over their own, but less willing to give to non-COVID-19 related causes [37,38]. This interpretation also fits with our finding that Dictator Game giving is higher for COVID-19 related targets.…”

“…Second, it is noteworthy that attrition was larger for males than for females. There is currently no explanation for this difference, but it is worth noting that other pandemic studies have also shown higher participation of females compared to males [34,35,37,39]. To investigate the extent to which self-selection bias influenced our results, we examined whether adolescents who did not participate in the daily diary study differed from those who did, see S7 File.…”

Cognitive Predictors of Precautionary Behavior During the COVID-19 Pandemic

“…Concerning other correlations with the CRT, previous work has also reported effects of gender ( Frederick, 2005 ; Campitelli and Gerrans, 2014 ; Thomson and Oppenheimer, 2016 ; Branas-Garza et al, 2020 ) using the classic three-item version, with male participants usually outperforming females. One reason given for this observation is that males have higher numeracy ( Baron et al, 2015 ), though Campitelli and Gerrans cite both numeracy and rational thinking ability, whereas others think the difference could be due to higher anxiety or lower self-assessment on numerical aptitude (e.g., Zhang et al, 2016 ).…”

“…The results from the first-order correlation analysis and subsequent hierarchical regression modeling are relatively clear: demographic factors previously associated with health behavior ( Pack et al, 2001 ; Deeks et al, 2009 ), such as age (but not sex, see Branas-Garza et al, 2020 for a similar result regarding COVID-related donation behavior) as well as felt concern about the virus, explained a significant proportion of the variance on the DV, as did the RTI: older participants, respondents who were more concerned about the virus, and those self-reporting as less risk-taking in normal life, reported greater adherence to precautionary measures.…”

A behavioral economic risk aversion experiment in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic

“…Interestingly, the same study found that prosociality measured two years before the pandemic predicts health behaviors during the pandemic. Another study found a significant decrease on generosity in an experiment was conducted six days during the early pandemic [ 48 ]. The authors explained such reduction suggesting that the Covid-19 threat may decreased generosity toward the “outgroup” or toward people not considered as part of the “ingroup”.…”