The Relationship between Values and Prosocial Behavior in Different Contexts before and during the Covid-19 Pandemic

ABSTRACT

The COVID-19 pandemic has unprece-dentedly influenced social interactions, which can be implemented both in real life (offline) and on the Internet. Prosocial behavior as a type of social interactions has a positive impact on individuals and society, especially during crises. Prosocial behavior is determined by various factors, including individual values and contextu-al factors as the most influential ones. The form of prosocial behavior and its deter-minants may differ in different periods of the society functioning. Therefore, study-ing prosocial behavior before and during the pandemic, and identifying factors of its implementation in various contexts is a relevant task. This study explores the relationship between individual values and prosocial behavior, in an offline and an online context, before and during the COVID-19 pandemic in Russia. A cross-sectional study with two sub-samples - the "pre-pandemic" group (N=304) and the "pandemic" group (N=187) - was conducted online, using the short version of Human Values Scale by S. Schwartz (ESS-21) and scales of prosocial behavior in online and offline contexts. Results show that during a pandemic people are less likely to engage in prosocial behavior offline and rely less on Self-Trans -cendence values. At the same time, in "the pre-pandemic" group, Self-Transcendence values contribute to prosocial behavior in both contexts, while Self-Enhancement values contribute to prosocial behavior in the online context. Next, in the "pandem-ic" group, Self-Transcendence values and Openness-to-Change values promote prosocial behavior in both contexts, while Conservation values discourage it. The results are discussed regarding the impact a pandemic has on people's lives.