Prosociality predicts health behaviors during the COVID-19 pandemic

Abstract

Socially responsible behavior is crucial for slowing the spread of infectious diseases. However, economic and epidemiological models of disease transmission abstract from prosocial motivations as a driver of behaviors that impact the health of others. In an incentivized study, we show that a large majority of people are very reluctant to put others at risk for their personal benefit. Moreover, this experimental measure of prosociality predicts health behaviors during the COVID-19 pandemic, measured in a separate and ostensibly unrelated study with the same people. Prosocial individuals are more likely to follow physical distancing guidelines, stay home when sick, and buy face masks. We also find that prosociality measured two years before the pandemic predicts health behaviors during the pandemic. Our findings indicate that prosociality is a stable, long-term predictor of policy-relevant behaviors, suggesting that the impact of policies on a population may depend on the degree of prosociality.

Cited by papers we hold 4

• Gender differences in behavioral and psychological crisis responses: a cross-national Oaxaca-Blinder analysis · 2025
  Not checked
• Monetary incentives increase COVID-19 vaccinations · 2021
  No notice
• Gender Differences in Fear and Risk Perception During the COVID-19 Pandemic · 2021
  No notice
• A daily diary study on adolescents' mood, empathy, and prosocial behavior during the COVID-19 pandemic. · 2020
  Not checked

Reads

A person counts once a day per paper. We keep no cookie and no address: a reader is a hash that changes every day. Any month under five reads shows no number.