Prosocial behavior during the COVID-19 pandemic in Germany. The role of responsibility and vulnerability.

In two pre-registered and fully incentivized studies (N = 501), we investigate prosocial behavior during the COVID-19 pandemic in Germany. Based on a comparison with pre-pandemic data, Study 1 shows that individuals' general prosociality measured with a (context-independent) Social Value Orientation Slider changed significantly before vs. during the early stage of the pandemic towards increased prosociality. In addition, we identified pandemic-specific context factors for prosocial behavior measured by a series of Dictator games with different recipients. Allocations in the Dictator game increased with the giver's responsibility and the recipients' vulnerability to the virus. Study 2 replicates and extends this finding in a sample representative for the adult German population in terms of age and gender. We show that, for different actors (self, recipient, politicians), different dimensions of responsibility (responsibility to help, responsibility for the problem cause, and for the solution) are associated with prosocial behavior. Contrary to what could be expected from diffusion of responsibility, prosocial behavior increased not only when individuals themselves felt responsible to help but also when they perceived politicians to be responsible to help. Assigning responsibility for the cause of the COVID-19 crisis to recipients and politicians was associated with a decrease in prosocial behavior. However, responsibility for the solution had no influence. We discuss implications for public policies.

Personality psychology in times of crisis: Profile-specific recommendations on how to deal with COVID-19.

The early stages of the COVID-19 pandemic posed a twofold global health threat: Besides the evident danger to human life, the corona crisis is also a psychological crisis. Psychologists worldwide have contributed to cushion the distress that is laid on many societies and enforce adaptive coping strategies. However, psychological support in the past has often been broadly applied, has not been particularly parsimonious and has often been focused on severe psychological stressors. In this brief report we describe the development and application of a low-threshold tool that generates personality-specific recommendations on how to functionally cope with the psychological challenges of the corona crisis. The tool gained widespread attention in Germany and many other countries and was well received by users. It demonstrates how psychological knowledge from personality and health psychology can be combined to be of very concrete use for many people in a threatening situation. We also show that personality is related to health behavior in a crisis in a meaningful way, providing further evidence that personality-specific advice can be a useful approach for supporting persons to cope with the crisis.

The behavioural challenge of the COVID-19 pandemic: indirect measurements and personalized attitude changing treatments (IMPACT).

Following the outbreak of COVID-19 pandemic, governments around the globe coerced their citizens to adhere to preventive health behaviours, aiming to reduce the effective reproduction numbers of the virus. Driven by game theoretic considerations and inspired by the work of US National Research Council's Committee on Food Habits (1943) during WWII, and the post-WWII Yale Communication Research Program, the present research shows how to achieve enhanced adherence to health regulations without coercion. To this aim, we combine three elements: (i) indirect measurements, (ii) personalized interventions, and (iii) attitude changing treatments (IMPACT). We find that a cluster of short interventions, such as elaboration on possible consequences, induction of cognitive dissonance, addressing next of kin and similar others and receiving advice following severity judgements, improves individuals' health-preserving attitudes. We propose extending the use of IMPACT under closure periods and during the resumption of social and economic activities under COVID-19 pandemic, since efficient and lasting adherence should rely on personal attitudes rather than on coercion alone. Finally, we point to the opportunity of international cooperation generated by the pandemic.