COVID-19 Protective Behaviors Are Forms of Prosocial and Unselfish Behaviors

Abstract

The aim of this study was to explore the effects of prosocial and antisocial personality tendencies and context-related state factors on compliance with protective behaviors to prevent the spread of coronavirus infections. Six types of prosocial tendencies (altruism, dire, compliant, emotional, public, and anonymous) and selfishness as the antisocial tendency were included as personality factors, while fear related to the pandemic and empathy toward vulnerable groups (i.e., those in forced isolation) were context-related factors. Furthermore, mediation effect of empathy and moderation effect of fear were explored in relations between personality factors and protective behaviors. The sample included 581 participants (78.3% females). The data were collected from March 28 to April 6, 2020, during the emergency state and curfew in Serbia. The results showed that tendency to help anonymously had a positive effect and selfishness had a negative effect on protective behaviors, over and above demographic characteristics and context-related factors. Among context-related factors, only fear related to the pandemic had a significant unique positive effect on protective behaviors, but it had no moderator effect in the relationship between personality traits and protective behaviors. However, empathy acted as a mediator and partly accounted for the negative effect of selfishness and positive effect of tendency to help anonymously on protective behaviors. The results revealed that compliance with protective measures could be seen as prosocial and unselfish form of behavior. Furthermore, these findings have practical implications for shaping public messages and they can help effectively promote health-responsible behaviors.

Prosocial Orientation of Russians During the COVID-19 Pandemic: Caring for Others and Yourself

“…Harvey and Erdos note that the psychological factors of risk-assisted behavior in an emergency area are altruism, heroism, and prosocial orientation of the individual (Harvey and Erdos, 2003 ). Studies conducted in Spain (Serrano-Montilla et al, 2021 ), Serbia (Dinić and BodroŽa, 2021 ), Canada, and the United States (Sin et al, 2021 ) showed that the health threat of COVID-19 predicted a tendency to express altruistic prosocial actions: anonymous helping behavior (Dinić and BodroŽa, 2021 ), volunteering and providing support (Sin et al, 2021 ), empathic care (Serrano-Montilla et al, 2021 ).…”

Dark Tetrad and COVID-19 protective measures: Mediating effects of risk-taking tendencies

“…For the purposes of this research, a short, 5-items scale was created, based on the item difficulty and loadings in Dinić and Bodroža (2021) , to assess people's compliance with protective measures against infection of COVID-19. On a 5-point Likert scale, participants rate how often they engage in avoiding crowds and gatherings, keeping 1.5–2 meter distance, meeting people in person, hand-sanitizing outside, wearing a mask in public ( M = 3.65, SD = 0.88, α = 0.79).…”

Factors influencing protective behavior in the post-COVID-19 period in China: a cross-sectional study

“…According to relevant theories and previous studies, the protective behavior of COVID-19 may be affected by gender, age, ethnicity, and self-rated economic status [ 51 – 53 ]. Therefore, this study contained 4 control variables that might affect the protective behavior of COVID-19; these included gender, age, ethnicity, and self-rated economic status.…”