Prosocial responses to COVID-19: Examining the role of gratitude, fairness and legacy motives

Abstract

The COVID-19 pandemic has produced an unprecedented collective action problem. Individuals must make a variety of decisions that influence both their own well-being and the health of those around them. Achieving the collective best-interest depends on most individuals responding in socially optimal ways, which includes remaining familiar with the current status of the pandemic, adhering to health guidelines relevant to the pandemic, and having a constructive emotional response to the pandemic. We sought to examine how individual differences in core moral motivators of collective action (i.e., fairness and gratitude) relate to individuals' COVID-19 responses. In a two-wave study (T1: N = 254; T2: N = 135) conducted in May and June 2020, we find that individual differences in fairness and gratitude were associated with more adaptive (i.e. positive emotions) and prosocial (i.e. remaining familiar with the pandemic, adhering to public health guidelines, prioritizing saving lives) responses to the pandemic. These effects are mediated through differences in impact legacy motives (i.e. being concerned about the impact one leaves behind once they have passed). Understanding the links between gratitude, fairness and legacy motives, and their impact on prosociality, could promote both current and intergenerational prosocial decision making.

Keywords: COVID-19; Fairness; Gratitude; Legacy motives; Prosociality.

Fig. 1

Conceptual model tested in the cross-sectional study.

Fig. 2

Path model for the indirect effect of gratitude and fairness on emotional responses to and behavioral intentions relevant to COVID-19, controlling for the association of political conservatism with the outcomes. Coefficients are unstandardized weights. Dashed arrows depict non-significant paths. * p < .05, ** p < .01, *** p < .001.