Shared fate was associated with sustained cooperation during the COVID-19 pandemic

Abstract

Did the COVID-19 pandemic bring people together or push them apart? While infectious diseases tend to push people apart, crises can also bring people together through positive interdependence. We studied this question by asking an international sample (N = 1,006) about their inclinations to cooperate, perceptions of interdependence (i.e., shared fate), and perceived risk as well as local prevalence of COVID-19 infection across 14 time points from March to August, 2020. While perceived interdependence with others tended to increase during this time period, inclinations to cooperate decreased over time. At the within-person level, higher local prevalence of COVID-19 attenuated increases in perceived interdependence with others, and was associated with lower inclinations to cooperate. At the between-person level, people with high perceived interdependence with others reported more stable, or increasing, inclinations to cooperate over time than people with low perceived interdependence. Establishing a high sense of perceived interdependence with others may thus allow people to maintain cooperation during crises, even in the face of challenging circumstances such as those posed by a highly transmissible virus.

Fig 1. Sample characteristics.

The size of circles shows the number of respondents. We created Fig 1 with OpenStreetMap® (https://www.openstreetmap.org). OpenStreetMap is open data, licensed under the Open Data Commons Open Database License (ODbL) by the OpenStreetMap Foundation (OSMF). According to OpenStreetMap “You are free to copy, distribute, transmit and adapt our data, as long as you credit OpenStreetMap and its contributors".

Fig 2. Inclinations to cooperate from March-August 2020.

Black lines show the marginal effect of time, blue lines show the Loess curve (i.e., non-parametric line of best fit), and gray lines show the person-specific effect of time. Shaded bands show 95% CIs. Willingness to help (1 = not at all willing, 7 = very willing) neighbors (a) and humanity (c), as well as need-based helping attitude (1 = do not agree at all, 7 = strongly agree) toward neighbors (b) and humanity (d) decreased by a small margin over time.

Fig 3. Perceived interdependence from March-August 2020.

Black lines show the marginal effect of time, blue lines show the Loess curve (i.e., non-parametric line of best fit), and gray lines show the person-specific effect of time. Shaded bands show 95% CIs. Emotional (a) and perceived (b) shared fate with neighbors (1 = do not agree at all, 7 = strongly agree), and perceived shared fate with humanity (d) increased by a small margin over time. Emotional shared fate with humanity (c) decreased by a small margin over time.

Fig 4. Changes in willingness to help neighbors.

Willingness to help neighbors (Someone from your neighborhood is having their residence fixed, so it isn’t livable. How willing would you be to let them move into your residence for a week?; 1 = not at all willing, 7 = very willing) decreased over time when people experienced higher (blue; a), but not when people experienced lower (red; a), COVID-19 prevalence. Willingness to help decreased over time for people who lived in areas with high (blue; b), but not low (red; b), COVID-19 prevalence. Willingness to help decreased more over time for people with high (blue; c), than for people with low (red; c), trait perceived infection risk. Willingness to help decreased over time for people with low (red; d), but not for people with high (blue; d), perceived shared fate with neighbors. Shaded bands show 95% CIs.

Fig 5. Changes in need-based helping attitude toward neighbors.

Need-based helping attitude (Helping someone from my neighborhood when they are in need is the right thing to do; 1 = strongly disagree, 7 = strongly agree) decreased by a small margin over time for people with high trait perceived infection risk (blue; a), but not for people with low trait perceived infection risk (red; a). Need-based helping attitude decreased over time for people with low emotional shared fate with neighbors (red; b), but increased over time for people with high emotional shared fate with neighbors (blue; b). Shaded bands show 95% CIs.

Fig 6. Changes in willingness to help a person from a different country.

Willingness to help (A person who is not a citizen of your own country is having their residence fixed, so it isn’t livable. How willing would you be to let them move into your residence for a week?; 1 = not at all willing, 7 = very willing) decreased over time when people experienced higher COVID-19 prevalence (blue; a), but not when people experienced lower COVID-19 prevalence (red; a). Willingness to help decreased more over time for people who lived in areas with high COVID-19 prevalence (blue; b), than for people who lived in areas with low COVID-19 prevalence (red; b). Willingness to help decreased over time for people with low perceived shared fate with humanity (red; c) but for people with high perceived shared fate with humanity (blue; c). Shaded bands show 95% CIs.

Fig 7. Changes in need-based helping attitude towards a person from a different country.

Need-based helping attitude (Helping a person who is not a citizen of your own country when they are in need is the right thing to do; 1 = strongly disagree, 7 = strongly agree) increased over time when people experienced lower COVID-19 prevalence (red; a), but not when people experienced higher COVID-19 prevalence (blue; a). Need-based helping attitude increased over time for people with low perceived shared fate with humanity (red; b), but not for people with high perceived shared fate with humanity (blue; b). Need-based helping attitude increased over time for people with high emotional shared fate with humanity (blue; c), but not for people with low emotional shared fate with humanity (red; c). Shaded bands show 95% CIs.

Fig 8. Changes in perceived interdependence.

All items were scored on 7-point scales (1 = do not agree at all, 7 = strongly agree). Emotional shared fate (When my neighborhood succeeds, I feel good) and perceived shared fate with neighbors (My neighborhood and I rise and fall together) increased over time when people experienced lower COVID-19 prevalence (red; a-b), but not when people experienced higher COVID-19 prevalence (blue; a-b). Perceived shared fate with neighbors increased over time for people residing in high COVID-19 prevalence areas (blue; c), but not for people in low COVID-19 prevalence areas (red; c). Emotional shared fate with humanity (When All of humanity succeeds, I feel good) increased when people experienced lower COVID-19 prevalence (red; d), but decreased by a small margin over time when people experienced higher COVID-19 prevalence (blue; d). Shaded bands show 95% CIs.

Fig 9. Inclinations to cooperate and perceived interdependence between neighbors and humanity.

Participants reported greater willingness to help (a), and higher need-based helping attitude (b) toward neighbors (blue) than a person from a different country (red). Participants reported higher emotional shared fate (c) and perceived shared fate (d) with all of humanity (red) than with neighbors (blue). Need-based helping attitude at time 1 between neighbors and humanity p = 0.005, all other pairwise comparisons p < 0.001.