The Cues of COVID-19: Negative Emotions and Empathy Guide Prosocial Behavior

Abstract

The COVID-19 research literature reveals that during the COVID-19 pandemic, people faced with unemployment risks, community blockades, and various negative information on the Internet, people will have fear, disgust, sadness, and other emotions in the short term, and will lead to anxiety and depression in a long time symptom, and cues about the COVID-19 can also cause emotional changes in people. Research on pro-social behaviors suggests that the influence of negative emotions on pro-social behavior tendencies is complex, and empathy will increase pro-social behavior. Study 1 is a measurement of people's pro-social behavior tendency under two different conditions. Compared with the controlled subjects, the subjects assigned to watch the cues of COVID-19 in Chinese reported more pro-social behavioral tendencies. In Study 2, we find that cues related to the epidemic did affect people's emotional changes, and the sum of these emotions also has a significant impact on pro-social behavioral tendencies. To understand which emotional mediator has the greatest influence on pro-social behavioral tendencies, study 2 also finds the complete mediating effect of empathy. Our results indicate that the cues of COVID-19 increased people's negative emotions and empathy, and empathy led to an increase in pro-social behavior, this reaction even crosses race and country. The result also has important implications for initiating people's pro-social behavior in major crisis events in the future.

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“…Next, negative feelings associated with shared suffering may make people more attentive to the needs of others. For instance, cues associated with the COVID-19 pandemic elicited negative emotions which may guide prosocial behavior through empathy (Li, 2021). All these can be especially relevant for the online prosocial behavior as it is more available and safer for people during the pandemic.…”

Determinants of the Online Prosocial Behavior during the COVID-19 Pandemic

“…Next, negative feelings associated with shared suffering may make people more attentive to the needs of others. For instance, cues associated with the COVID-19 pandemic elicited negative emotions which may guide prosocial behavior through empathy (Li, 2021). All these can be especially relevant for the online prosocial behavior as it is more available and safer for people during the pandemic.…”